Tax Day: The Media Want Politicians to Have Even MORE of Your Money
16th April 2023
Tax day is Tuesday this year, so millions of Americans will spend this weekend poring over their records, filling out their returns and writing checks payable to the U.S. Treasury. Last year, the federal government took in a record $4.9 trillion in revenue, more than triple the $1.58 trillion the government collected just 25 years earlier (1997).
That’s an average increase of more than eight percent a year, far more than the rate of inflation (which has averaged 2.4% annually over the past 25 years) plus the increase in the U.S. population (roughly 0.7% annually). The total of all economic activity in the United States per year (GDP) is currently $26.1 trillion, which means the federal government now claims nearly one-fifth (19.6%) of all dollars for itself, a much higher rate than the long-term average of 16.5 percent.
Yet, it’s still not enough money to fulfill all the promises dreamed up by politicians looking for votes. The federal budget hasn’t been balanced since 2001; decades of deficit spending has led to a cumulative national debt of more than $31 trillion.
Yet instead of holding politicians accountable for their impossible promises and reckless stewardship of the nation’s finances, the media lobby for more punishing taxes to be imposed on the public. This has been true during both Democratic and Republican administrations, wartime and peacetime, and in boom times and busts.
The media don’t have the power to raise taxes, but they do have the ability to steer the national conversation toward the solutions they prefer. And instead of making over-spending an issue, the news media have relentlessly pushed for even more of the nation’s wealth to be handed over to the federal government to spend….