The Deficit- Is it a Tax Revenue Issue?
Peter G. Peterson Foundation- https://www.pgpf.org/budget-basics/who-pays-taxes
- This article reveals the facts about who pays particular federal taxes by examining the tax system and data from the Congressional Budget Office and Tax Policy Center.
Tax Policy Center- https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/tcja-increasing-share-households-paying-no-federal-income-tax
- This article explains the statistic that 44% of Americans pay no federal individual income taxes in 2018 and how and why this number continues to change over the years. The article also demonstrates that while 44% is a large percentage of Americans not paying federal income taxes, most American households will still have to pay taxes in the form of payroll taxes, excise taxes, sales taxes, and other state taxes.
- This article describes that although the amount of money in income taxes collected in 2019 set a record high, the fiscal year of 2019 still ran a high deficit because total tax revenue did not exceed its record while spending on the other hand did.
Mother Jones- https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/07/the-budge-deficit-is-all-about-taxes-not-spending/
- The author of this opinion piece asserts that the cause of the deficit is a lack of revenue, and does not pertain to government spending.
Politico- https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/22/deficit-don-budget-red-ink-trump-1426696
- In this analysis piece, the author describes that the deficits have significantly increased during Trump’s presidency.
The Wall Street Journal- https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-budget-gap-widened-23-in-first-nine-months-of-fiscal-year-11562868054
- This article reports that the tax revenues have increased, but not enough offset higher federal spending.
The Wall Street Journal- https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-budget-deficit-grew-39-in-first-eight-months-of-fiscal-year-11560362539
- This article describes how the US budget deficit increased by nearly 40 percent in the first eight months of the fiscal year despite the fact that the tax revenue continued to rise.
- This website gives a weekly update of the tax and debt problems.
- This article describes how of the people who filed for tax returns, one-third of them paid 0 dollars or less for income taxes.
- This article recounts how federal spending has reached a 10-year high, while federal taxes have reached a 5-year low, which is the worst possible situation for the deficit.
Tax Foundation- https://taxfoundation.org/growing-percentage-americans-zero-income-tax-liability/
- This article describes how the amount of people not paying taxes has been increasing since the 1950s.
- This opinion piece describes how neither side of the political spectrum is addressing the national debt. For example, the Republicans are calling for tax cuts, while the Democrats are calling for increased governmental spending. Both of these do nothing to stop the increase in debt. Instead, they increase the debt by a larger factor.
- This article describes how in the calendar year 2018, there was a record amount of money collected from individual income taxes.
New York Times- https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/11/opinion/debt-tax-democrats-presidential-elections.html
- This article describes how the future does not look bright for future generations due to increasing debt caused by irresponsible spending and tax cuts. The author asserts that it is necessary for the government to raise taxes. Furthermore, the debt is projected to pass the yearly GDP.
- This article reports that the debt has gone up to 22 trillion dollars due to President Trump’s tax cuts and increased congressional spending.
Politico- https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/13/cbos-big-ideas-for-shrinking-the-deficit-1031646
- This article lists the different options that the Congressional Budget Office has come up with in order to decrease the deficits, including creating new taxes and decreasing Medicare spending.
- This article describes how the government collected a record amount of money in taxes for the first two months of the 2019 fiscal year; however, the deficits were still high due to extreme government spending.
Investor’s Business Daily- https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/deficit-tax-revenues-cbo-report/
- This article declares that the deficits of the fiscal year 2019 have not increased by that much and that the only reason it seems that way is because of changes to the calendar of spending. In addition, this article emphasizes that tax revenue has increased by a significant amount.
- This article describes how the government was able to collect a record amount of money in taxes, but there was still a massive deficit due to government spending.
- This article acknowledges that there was a record value of money collected from income taxes, but the deficits are still high; this suggests that the government still spends too much money.
- This article claims that the additional budget deficit was due to Trump’s recent corporate tax cut.
- In this article, Janet Yellen, who is the chair of the Federal Reserve, says that she would raise taxes if she could because the debt situation is most likely only going to get worse.
- This article explains how Congress recently passed a bill to cut taxes and a bill showing how much money they spend.
- This article deeply criticizes Republicans because the author believes that Republicans have acted carelessly in terms of handling the deficits and have deemed the deficits as unimportant.
Sean Hannity- https://www.hannity.com/media-room/great-again-us-treasury-rakes-in-record-tax-haul-in-2018/
- This article alludes to Trump’s phrase, making “America Great Again” by saying that the government was successful in the most recent year by collecting a record amount of tax money.
The Hill- http://thehill.com/homenews/house/402680-top-gop-lawmaker-tax-cuts-will-lower-projected-deficit
- This article weighs on the incongruence of one of the GOP senator's statement that decreased taxes will lower the deficit.
The Hill- http://thehill.com/opinion/finance/401897-fiscal-recklessness-puts-the-next-crisis-on-our-doorstep
- This article shows the irresponsibility that the US has with its money.
The Wall Street Journal- https://www.wsj.com/articles/tax-revenues-are-higher-1533941919
- This article states a positive aspect about the national debt: tax revenues are up.
Congressional Budget Office- https://www.cbo.gov/system/files?file=2018-08/54339-MBR.pd
- This page shows the monthly budget review of how the budget was supposed to be spent in July.
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget- http://www.crfb.org/papers/cbos-alternative-long-term-budget-scenarios
- This page shows predictions of where the debt and how the debt might expand in the future.
- This piece shows how Trump's recent tax cuts have increased the deficits significantly.
The Washington Post- https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/08/05/trump-makes-bizarre-claim-that-tariffs-will-help-pay-down-massive-us-debt/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.e2ca1946de62
- This opinion piece asserts that Trump’s claims that tariffs can reduce the nation debt are outlandish.
The Western Journal- https://www.westernjournal.com/washington-spending-restraint-is-key-to-tax-reforms-success/
-This article declares that the key for success in Trump's tax reform is a reduced spending by Congress.
The Washington Post- https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-white-house-is-living-in-an-alternate-economic-universe/2018/06/30/efc1639c-7bca-11e8-80be-6d32e182a3bc_story.html?utm_term=.9c920d67460c
-This article shows how the White House was living a fantasy when they said that deficits would come down because of the tax cuts.
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget- http://www.crfb.org/press-releases/committee-responsible-federal-budget-reacts-house-budget-resolution
-This article reacts to the House's Budget Resolution.
- This article shows how revenue from taxes are increasing, but that the deficit is still high.
Politico- https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-tax/2018/06/27/here-we-go-again-265172
-This article describes how the debt situation will only continue to worsen in the next few years.
Roll Call- https://www.rollcall.com/news/policy/cbo-us-debt-burden-set-to-break-record-in-early-2030s
-This article shows how the debt is increasing in terms of its percentage of the GDP, and how the debt will eventually be more than the GDP by the late 2020s or early 2030s.
Congressional Budget Office- https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/115th-congress-2017-2018/reports/53919-2018ltbo.pdf
-This page shows how the CBO predicts the cost of federal credit programs.
Washington Times- https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/may/7/cbo-says-april-was-best-month-history-us-budget/
-This article shows that the US did well this year with how much money it collected in taxes.
The Post and Courier- https://www.postandcourier.com/opinion/commentary/on-tax-day-it-s-the-payers-vs-the-takers/article_da5e65de-41a7-11e8-8938-8f8dddef351d.html
- This article's author describes how not everyone pays on tax day, and some of those people who do not pay taxes get social benefits from the government since they are poor.
Congressional Box Office- https://www.cbo.gov/publication/53787
- This article shows how the taxes collected in 2017 affected the CBO’s predictions about the debt/deficit.
-This article describes how the federal government has collected a record amount of income tax in 2018 so far, but the federal government still has a large amount of deficit for 2018.
The Wall Street Journal- https://www.wsj.com/articles/top-20-of-americans-will-pay-87-of-income-tax-1523007001
-This article describes how Americans who are in the top 20% for income pay a substantial amount of the income taxes that the government receives. The article also shows how progressive our American tax system is.
The Washington Post - https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/06/18/national-debt-budget-projections-cbo/
-This article describes national debt projections for the upcoming years, up to 2050. It also goes in depth with the bipartisan nature of the national debt as seen with our former and current presidents, Donald J. Trump and Joseph R. Biden.