Transfers to States $1.21 Trillion, Medicaid, Transportation dollars, "other". Same problem as defense, too many Congress critters demanded this money.

Other Spending $1.16 Trillion, Education, "Other".

Defense $1.03 Trillion - Needs to be cut. What isn't cut needs to be audited.

Medicare $756 Billion - Needs an audit for fraud and abuse, but won't come close to balancing everything.

Unemployment, SNAP, etc. "Welfare" - $619 Billion

Interest on debt - $483 Billion

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We could make some meaningful changes, but it would annoy a ton of people, such as:

phase out SS benefits for wealthier people, and increase/eliminate SS income tax cap
end "use it or lose it" budgeting so agencies don't feel like they need to spend a ton at the end of the year; perhaps roll over 70% of the unused budget?
increase IRS budget, and allow them to launch their own tax prep software
audit spending for defense - we spend way too much, and there's undoubtedly a ton of corruption
close down certain foreign military bases and trust our allies to defend themselves

But none of that is going to happen because reasons. I think the above could get us to a balanced budget without too much pain, though we may need to increase taxes a little or make more painful cuts.

Regardless, a lot of the debt is held by the government and US citizens, so it's not nearly as big of a pound as people make it out to be, but it's still a problem and nobody seems interested in actually fixing it.

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.one 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Going back to pre-Reagan tax policy alone would be huge, and like you say, the SS income tax cap.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

I don't think we need to go back to pre-Reagan tax policy. We don't need to jack up top tax rates to 50% again, we just need to enforce the tax code we already have and eliminate loopholes.

That alone should bring in hundreds of billions. When paired with some cuts and audits, we should be able to balance the budget.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No argument there. Thing is that the military budget is basically a way to funnel taxes away from public spending which they're intended for such as building infrastructure, providing healthcare, education, and so on. Instead, tax dollars end up being fed into the war industry owned by the oligarchs, which is why the military budget continues to balloon each and every year.

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.one 3 points 1 year ago

Yup, yup... Exactly what Ike warned about and likely what got JFK and RFK capped.