While listening to professional agitators heckling Mitt Romney on a video, there are three numbers that should be at the front of any candidate’s mind:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/08co01ccr.xls
From 2008:
Total Taxable income of all US Corporations: $978 billion
Corporate Income Tax $342 billion
2011 Budget Deficit $1,229 billion
The taxable income that the Federal government needs can only be found one place – the middle class of America. Corporations are not a pot of gold that can be shoplifted to get free stuff.
Romney makes the statement that “Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid account for “about half” of Federal spending. Is he right?
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/federal_budget_fy11bs12011n_00#usgs302
Total FY 2011 expenditures – $3,720 billion
Social Security $766 billion
Medicare $457 billion
Medicaid (Federal) $275 billion
Total of 3 items $1,498 billion
which is 40%.
So what does “about” mean”?
This statistic is misleading even so – Medicaid is a State program – one that is madated by the Federal Government, for which they only pays about 2/3 part of the cost – so another $100 billion or so is coming out of your State Government. As of 2010, 51.5 million people are on Medicaid, an average cost of about $7,300 per person.
Video on page 2