Comparing
the Federal Budget to an Individual Taxpayer’s Home Budget
Recently
I wrote about our U.S. economy, how far in debt we are and what it
would take to dig ourselves out of debt. Yet until recently when some
folks noticed how much we spend just on the annual interest on that
debt did those folks become concerned.
So, to
make this more understandable to people who don’t deal with
political or financial terms, I’d like to make a household budget
comparable to an individual’s personal household budget. So, let’s
get started.
Total
income for this individual is $63795. per year. Take home after
taxes, Medicare, etc. $51904 per year.
Total
calculated expenditures for the year $88172 (rent or mortgage, car,
insurances, taxes, utilities, etc., oh, and interest on money that
you’ve borrowed and not yet paid back (Total Loan $469385.98 Annual
interest on loan without anything on the principle of the loan
$15020)
So,
basically what this is telling us is that we make $63795 ($51904 take
home) this year but we’re going to spend $88172. That puts this
individual $36268 further in debt.
Better
get another loan*. So, next
year you’ll be even further in debt. Soon no one will be willing to
lend you any money. Actually, no one would have lent you money long
before it reached near that much! But if multiplied proportionally to
the annual income and debt of the U.S. government this is exactly the
situation our government is in!!!
So, an individual would have two choices of what to do in this
situation-
1. Increase income.
2. Decrease spending.
Well, believe it or not, these are the two options that our
government has also.
So, how does the government do this.
1.
Increase income- a. Tax your citizens more. Citizens
are struggling enough without more taxes!
b. Grow the economy. Hey
wait a minute. Isn’t this exactly what our president is trying
to do? And a certain political party is trying to trip him up every
step of the way. Do they care more about their party than the
country? Do they hate our President so much that they want to
sacrifice our country to make him fail?
2. Decrease spending- a. Decrease funding for all government funded
programs by at least 20% in order to balance the budget.
Eliminate programs if not absolutely necessary.
b. Eliminate waste and fraud.
Hey wait a minute.
Isn’t this exactly what our president is trying to do with
DOGE? And a certain political party is trying to trip him up
every step of the way. Do they hate our President so much that
they want to sacrifice our country to make him fail?
The
numbers in this article are not off the top of my head but are from
published estimates.
*In
government terminology “Better get another loan” equates “raise
the debt ceiling”.