RUSH: The Congressional Budget Office announced that the federal government is going to take in a record number of dollars via tax revenue this year. That record is $2.7 trillion. Now, there’s two things about this. That $2.7 trillion in tax revenue, it’s an all-time record — and who do you think is paying the majority of that $2.7 trillion when you understand that 48% of Americans are not paying any income tax?
We’ve had the information up on my website for years about the breakdown. The top 1% pays X; the top 5% pays X. Basically the top 10% of wage earners in this country are paying about 80% of all taxes. The top 5% are paying 40%. We’ve got a record tax year for income tax, all tax revenue. So you can say we’re not under-taxed when we’re collecting more revenue via taxes than ever before in a down economy, folks!
In a down economy with 8.5 million fewer jobs available since 2009 when Obama took office, unemployment is really at 14%. The labor force participation rate is practically at an all-time low. (It’s close to what it was in the seventies with Jimmy Carter.) Even with all of this unemployment, even with the fact that about half the country pays no income tax, we still have a record year in tax revenue collected by the government. So we’re not undertaxed.
If there was ever any illusion that our budget problems are spending-side focused, this is it. Even with a record year of tax revenue, it’s still not enough for Obama and the Democrats. They’re still demanding more taxes. They now want a carbon tax. Obama’s dangling a carrot out there. He says (summarized), “Well, you know, I might approve the Keystone pipeline, but I want a carbon tax.” Folks, a carbon tax is an energy tax.
It is a tax on every bit of fuel that you use at every level of fuel production and distribution, from discovery to the consumer. It is a tax at every level. It is going to take even more disposable income out of the pockets of people. The government is going to get richer. The economy is gonna get smaller. Prosperity is going to shrink. Tax revenue will increase and exceed the record number of $2.7 trillion.
Even with this record amount of tax revenue collected, we’re gonna spend a $1 trillion more than that again this year. We’re gonna spend $3.7 trillion after collecting $2.7 trillion, which means that we’re gonna have another deficit of $1 trillion, which means the national debt will go from $16 trillion to $17 trillion (and actually more once interest and all is added in). Don’t you think this might indicate that we have a spending problem?
Don’t you think this might indicate that the American people are taxed plenty? Don’t you think it might indicate that the whole idea that there are some people not paying their “fair share” can be thrown out the window? No matter what the tax rate is and no matter what the amount of money collected is, Obama is still gonna run around and say, “We just need a little bit more from the rich. The rich still aren’t paying their fair share. They’ve got much more than they need.”
I think this is a stunning number when you consider the number of people not working and not paying any tax. I think it’s a stunning number, but it doesn’t mean a hill of beans when you look at the amount of money we’re spending. Now, let’s add the sequester to this just for the sake of it. It’s tough to start talking numbers on the radio, but if the sequester is kept in place for the next ten years — and it won’t be.
The sequester, of course, is $1.2 trillion cut over ten years. Which, year by year, is infinitesimal. If the sequester, however, is kept in place for the next ten years, the government will still end up spending $2.4 trillion more ten years from now than we’re spending now, which is to say ten years from now the federal government will be spending almost as much more as what it currently collects in taxes.
We are currently collecting $2.7 trillion in taxes. With the sequester, with the cuts of the sequester, we are still gonna spend $2.4 trillion more over ten years. So there isn’t any budget-cutting. There isn’t anything getting smaller. There is no pain being inflicted — other than the optics of it, other than government officials telling you that it’s painful for people out there. There might be a couple of people getting furloughed a day a week.
I have no doubt that the regime is making sure that there are some government employees that are in pain, because they need it! They benefit from it. All of you federal workers — and we’ve had a number of them call here and complain about their circumstance. They’re being furloughed. They’re losing one day of pay a week. It’s gonna mean this, gonna mean that. You’ve gotta understand that the president of the United States is benefiting from your pain.
It’s designed for him to benefit from your pain.
It is designed for that.
This whole sequester — and, in fact, all of Obama’s budgeting for the next two years — is designed to inflict pain, because nothing is Obama’s fault. It’s all the Republicans’ fault. We have a president of the country who’s comfortable with suffering. It benefits him politically. We have a president who’s comfortable with the pain his policies — sequester is his idea — are inflicting. It benefits him politically. That’s not how we’ve understood presidents to operate and to act. You federal workers need to blame the boss! Your boss is sacrificing you in order to win some elections in 2014.