Many of us have been pushing for spending cuts. Serious spending cuts. Trillions worth. Our country spends so much on programs it shouldn't. . .
Curious which trillion(s) you'd like to cut? We spend about 4 trillion per year -- and it divides more or less in four quarters:
1/4 -- Social Security. Repaying people for the money they've put in over a lifetime. Should we break that promise?
1/4 -- Medicare and health. Also repaying people for money they've put in over a lifetime of contributions. Should we break that promise?
1/4 -- Military and veterans. Various defense and "defense" and taking care of the folks we've sent off to be wounded. This quarter includes the interest on our debt from various wars. You could get your trillion here, but we still face genuine threats.
1/4 -- Helping citizens in need. Lots of "takers" here, and I'm including Medicaid subsidies in this quarter. But not just welfare. This trillion includes the cost of exiting the Great Recession in past years. The victims of storms and natural disasters maybe close to a trillion worth of damages just this year. And a large portion of this "aid to citizens" is going to tax breaks or subsidies for fairly wealthy who aren't black, Hispanic, or poor rural white -- one reason folks still want to see Trump's tax returns and we still grumble about corn-based Ethanol subsidized in gasoline.
No question we could and should spend our money more wisely -- neither party is paying much attention to institutional quality and productivity. But if you compare our tax percentage to other first world countries, we're on the low end. We're headed into increasing the national deficit, not reducing it.
Also no question we need tax reform. While our nominal top rate is high, some industries have bought huge political and regulatory favor; including hedge funds, insurance and financial companies, pharma companies, defense, oil, corporate agriculture, most anyone shipping jobs overseas. One can bet that lobbyists are working overtime to see their breaks are preserved -- and also how to game things like the lower rate for private businesses (which includes most hedge funds, private equity, etc.).
Personally, I'd like to see a much simpler and fairer system -- especially for smaller and mid-sized businesses. That's one thing being promised (and the OP's question). I'm skeptical that special interests won't skewer it. If so, we'll get a supposed "tax break for everyone" followed by deficits, followed by more financial chaos, followed by small businesses in a recession and what amounts to both a tax hike down the road and deflation of business assets. Hope I'm wrong, but we've been having ten year cycles of boom and bust in which the middle class and small business tend to come out a bit poorer each time. Look at the financial types in Trump's cabinet -- and how they like to use Federal travel funds etc. -- to make your own call
Also like to see it much harder for large companies to use our schools and infrastructure -- and then escape the taxes that pay for them (through off-shoring, corporate inversions, etc.). While we should bring that overseas wealth home (created mostly out of US-paid assets) we should also stop letting companies rip off our schools, public R&D, roads, infrastructure, environment, etc. and not pay it either back or forward. Want to talk patriotism? Forget, the flag pins and have our best and brightest, our captains of industry, working to renew our schools, research, neighborhoods, and infrastructure.
Also like to see both poltical parties spend our money with far greater care and concern for ROI.
But it terms of "let's cut trillions from the budget" -- you might want to do the math. Which trillions?
The notion that these tax cuts will pay for themselves comes from the guy who thinks everything around and on him is huge -- pretty much without ever a nod to reality. Over the past hundred years, technological innovation has been the main driver of growth and prosperity. Investments in such things as our schools (once the world's best), R&D (we pretty much invented the auto, aero, computer, and Internet ages), and infrastructure (we put electric lines, highways, bridges, water works, sewers, etc. throughout the country) enabled this. Today, many of our schools are failing. Both public and private R&D funding is being cut. Our infrastructure lags. Hard to see, IMO, how the budget proposal actually invests in the drivers of innovation and growth. Far as I can tell so far, the breaks may go as much or more to the marginally productive wealthy, as a new generation of Edisons.
The private sector also plays a huge role here in improving our budget situtation -- a very large part of our national spend (trillions) is now on health care and it is private (and would remain mostly private even with single payer). And the reasons we spend 2x per capita other big spender nations, don't cover all our citizens, and have worse outcomes in things like longevity are largely due to inefficiency and sometimes greed and corruption in our private suppliers. Remember, our hospitals essentially kill 1/3 of the patients that die through lousy quality control. The opioid epidemic is at least partly a creation of the pharma industry wanting new uses and more customers.
The quarter we spend on our military is not doing all that well either -- ships going bump in the dark, weapons systems over budget, and we still too unsure of our anti-missile systems to use them as much more than a bluff in places like North Korea.
