US Budget Information

[CommonEnlightenment]

I saw this graph posted on another website and decided that it would be a good idea to post here.

I think that this graph can serve three main purposes:

1. The importance of knowing who was in control of the government and when......
2. The importance of knowing how to calculate the slope of line segments during the periods in question.
3. Remeber to check your sources and use skills to analyze the information presented.



Have fun and remember to play nice.

 

[ImprobableJoe]

That's incredibly dishonest/dumb to put those numbers together, along with the comment.

 

[tuxbox]

This graph is the one that disturbs me the most and it also reinforces my belief that President Clinton was the best president in my lifetime.

http://www.heritage.org/federalbudget/growth-federal-spending-revenue

 

[ImprobableJoe]

This graph is the one that disturbs me the most and it also reinforces my belief that President Clinton was the best president in my lifetime.

http://www.heritage.org/federalbudget/growth-federal-spending-revenue

That one, the graph is OK and the caption is dishonest. Of course, it comes from the right-wing Heritage Foundation, which explains a lot. These are the same jokers responsible for most of the current economic troubles.

 

[atheisthistorian]

Both of these graphs use true data, but leave it to Heritage to prevaricate nonetheless. It's absolutely true that spending is growing faster than median income, but that has more to do with the fact that income has been stagnant for the last 12 years while inflation and costs have continued to rise. The real problem here is that employers have used the recession as an excuse to lay off millions of people while keeping wages low, and pushing work speed-ups. Most of the American public has simply been too afraid of being next on the chopping block to fight for cost of living increases. It's ironic that Heritage, the group that fights most vehemently against living wage and minimum wage laws would have this on their website.

As to the second, we know spending outweighs income, and there's a damn good reason for it. 70% of the federal budget is mandatory spending on entitlements like social security, medicare and medicaid. We simultaneously are in the middle of a crisis that continues to impoverish America, forcing millions to rely on the social safety net, and the retirement of a large section of a our population who has begun collecting SSA pensions. Of course Heritage's solution is to privatize pensions, and kill social programs, sticking it to the most vulnerable as opposed to fixing our insane tax rate. We could of course do the humane, and rational thing, return capital gains tax levels back to 45%, create a more progressive income tax and restore inheritance taxes, but Heritage is also largely responsible for the current Cult of Supply Side Economics which dominates Washington today, with its endless mantras of, "the rich are job creators," while branding heretics as "freeloaders and parasites" for demanding that the ultra-rich pay a tax rate comparable to the rest of society.

 

[tuxbox]

This graph is the one that disturbs me the most and it also reinforces my belief that President Clinton was the best president in my lifetime.

http://www.heritage.org/federalbudget/growth-federal-spending-revenue

That one, the graph is OK and the caption is dishonest. Of course, it comes from the right-wing Heritage Foundation, which explains a lot. These are the same jokers responsible for most of the current economic troubles.

Indeed!

 

[ArthurWilborn]

Remember, people, that "household income" is also a deceptive indicator. The reason it's been going down is due in large part to the average size of a household shrinking. The per capita income has been rising.