Only the government can receive a record amount of revenues and still be drowning in red ink.
According to the Treasury Department’s Monthly Treasury Statements (MTS), the federal government stole, er, collected an all-time high of $1,665,484,000,000 in individual income taxes in calendar 2018. This comes even as President Donald Trump implemented tax breaks, particularly for corporations, at the end of 2017.
Overall tax receipts did slip, from $3,407,503,740,000 to $3,330,470,000,000, which is still an impressive amount of theft.
The glaring problem? The government spent a $4.407 trillion – the new budget deal to include border security funding is anticipated to top a record $1.3 trillion.
This is bad fiscal news, especially with the national debt surpassing $22 trillion this week (SEE: U.S. debt tops $22 trillion, expected to surpass $23 trillion in a year) and the budget deficit on target to hit $1 trillion again.
In the end, tax cuts do create wealth and stimulate the economy. But politicians who think trinkle-down economics will lead to balanced budgets have another thing coming. The government never cuts spending to offset the tax breaks.
It’s too bad that most Republicans are not railing against their own spending much in the same way they slammed the previous administration.
Fiscal conservatism is dead.
One can understand why the elites want a police state, but why would the 99% embrace it?