U.S. Taxes

Question 1

How has the U.S. income tax burden shifted between individuals and corporations from 1945 (end of WWII) thru 2016

Answer 1

individual::corporate ratio shifted from 2::3 for 1945 to 4::1 at present (Richard Wolff EU 8.26.2016)

Question 2

What were the top 5 Discretionary Spending sectors for the U.S. in 2015?

Answer 2

1. 54% Military - $598.5B 2. 6% Government - $72.9B 3. 6% Education - $70B 4. 6% Medicare - $66B 5. 6% Veterans Benefits - $65.3B https://www.nationalpriorities.org/charts/partial/discretionary

Question 3

What were the bottom 5 Discretionary Spending sectors for the U.S. in 2015?

Answer 3

12. 1% Food & Agriculture - $13.1B 11. 2% Transportation - $26.3B 10. 3% Social Security, Unemployment, & Labor$29.1B 9. 3% Science - 29.7B 8. 4% Energy & Environment - $39.1B

Question 4

What was the breakdown of $1.11 Trillion in Discretionary Spending for 2015?

Answer 4

1. 54% Military - $598.5B 2. 6% Government - $72.9B 3. 6% Education - $70B 4. 6% Medicare - $66B 5. 6% Veterans Benefits - $65.3B 6. 6% Housing & Community - 63.2B 7. 4% International Affairs - 40.9B 8. 4% Energy & Environment - $39.1B 9. 3% Science - 29.7B 10. 3% Social Security, Unemployment, & Labor$29.1B 11. 2% Transportation - $26.3B 12. 1% Food & Agriculture - $13.1B

Question 5

Most local government income comes from property taxes. At what rate is intangible property taxed (e.g. stocks and bonds)? Who owns most of intangible property?

Answer 5

ZERO PERCENT

Intangible property such as stocks and bonds are not taxed.

In aggregate 1% of shareholders own roughly 2/3 of all shares.

Question 6

What 7 countries were bombed by the United States in the year of 2016 under Presiden Barak Obama?

Where can you keep up to date on drone strikes?

Answer 6

Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Libya.

https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/projects/drone-war keeps up-to-date records on drone strikes.

Question 7

How is spending on veteran care expected to change according to Business Insider artice?

Answer 7

By 2033 the U.S. will be paying $59 billion a year to its veterans injured in the wars. Other facts from the article state that “The pentagon budget consumes 80% of individual income tax revenue”

The article can be found at:

http://www.businessinsider.com/military-spending-budget-defense-cuts-2011-10?op=1

Question 8

According to the article “ 60% of Democrats Vote For A Defense Budget Even Bigger Than Trump’s” - how did the defense budget unfold from 2017?

Answer 8

For the fiscal year ending Sept 30, 2017 the budget set by the Obama administration included: $582.7 Billion in miltary spending. It included a base budget of $523.9 billion and the “overseas contingency operations (OCO) budget” of $58.8 billion.

The Trump administration wanted to add about $54 billion

As the Defense Department’s own budget numbers showed, it requested $574.5 billion in base budget and $64.6 billion in OCO for a total of $639.1 billion.

8 August, 2017 - congress passed a defense bill to spend $696.5 B - a 18.7% y-o-y growth.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2017/07/14/most-house-democrats-just-voted-for-a-defense-budget-far-bigger-than-trumps/#22105cb16ea0

Question 9

What proportion of personal income taxes collected by the federal government are used to pay for the U.S. military and other conflict related activities according to Business Insider artice?

Answer 9

“The pentagon budget consumes 80% of individual income tax revenue”

The article can be found at:

http://www.businessinsider.com/military-spending-budget-defense-cuts-2011-10?op=1

Question 10

According to the Straus Military Reform Project, what is the total real yearly cost of American militaristic foreign policy?

Answer 10

The yearly cost reaches $1 TRILLION when we count military/defense related activities like:

• homeland security,
• veterans affairs,
• nuclear warhead production at the DoE,
• military aid to other countries,
• and interest on the military-related national debt.