And then Republicans vote for more deficit busting tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts do not, and never have, pay for themselves.
Any serious discussion about dealing with debt and deficits must include raising revenue.
LoL.
This is nothing but mindless repeating of DNC talking points.
@Cincydawg has mentioned many times that Federal Revenues don't change all that much. Here is a
graph of Federal Revenues as a percentage of GDP from 1929-2024 from the St. Louis Fed.
Note that, as Cincy has pointed out, they don't actually change all that much. This is despite top marginal rates varying to as high as 90%. Still, revenues haven't ever gotten over 20% of GDP.
What HAS changed is expenditures. Here, from the same source, is a
graph of Federal Outlays as a percentage of GDP from 1929-2024.
Note that expenditures soared to fight WWII and it was the spending cuts of the mid-to-late 90s that balanced the budget in the late 90s. The recent spending spree is unprecedented in peacetime. Highest federal outlays as a percentage of GDP since 1929:
- 40.68%, 1944
- 40.67%, 1945
- 38.68%, 1943
- 30.69%, 2020
- 28.81%, 2021
- 24.30%, 2009
- 24.27%, 1946
- 24.12%, 2022
- 23.10%, 2011
- 22.97%, 2010
- 22.30%, 1982
- 22.24%, 1983
- 22.13%, 2023
- 23.14%, 2024
The top-3 and #7 are WWII and the wind-down (1946). #11 and 12 were recession reactions. The early-80s recession dropped GDP which pushed expenditures up relative to GDP and there was a lot of spending due to the recession.
That is six of the 14 years that Federal Outlays have exceeded 22% of GDP. The other eight are:
- 3 years from 2009-2011 in response to the credit crunch recession
- The last five straight years (2020-2024).
You might WANT to believe that it is a revenue problem but the facts are that it is a spending problem.
The highest Federal Revenue as a percentage of GDP has ever been is a little under 20% in both 1945 (19.81%) and 2000 (19.76%). Even if revenues were at that level we wouldn't have had a balanced budget since 2007.
Expenditures from 2020-2024 are plainly unsustainable:
- 30.69% in 2020
- 28.81% in 2021
- 24.12% in 2022
- 22.13% in 2023
- 23.14% in 2024
Even with all-time high revenues (19.81% in 1945) we'd still have run annual deficits of:
- 10.88% of GDP in 2020
- 9.00% of GDP in 2021
- 4.31% of GDP in 2022
- 2.32% of GDP in 2023
- 3.32% of GDP in 2024
You can't fix a spending problem with tax increases.
