This chart may put perspective on the overall effect of a change in corporate taxes. It also highlights the expenditures that are relatively untouchable and those that are……….some incoming administrations wanting to blow up the Dept of Education.


It's an interesting graphic and it does seem pretty discouraging, at first sight, for those of us who hope the government might balance the budget some day.

However, 2 things:

First, corportate taxes are a pretty small part of the mix - 11% of government revenue. And cutting the rates by 6%, from 21% to 15%, will not mean that corporate taxes paid come down by 6/21 = 29%, as many corporations already pay far less than 21%.

Second, the way the expenditures are presented makes it seem like no cuts are possible, without touching social security, medicare, medicaid, the defence, education, etc. But the point of the proposed expenditure review is to identify areas where too much is spent on administration of these programs, not to cut the actual spending that goes out to citizens, the army, students, etc. As an example, education is $305b of the budget, or 17% of the budget shortfall. How much of that $305 actually gets to students and teachers? The US apparently contributes 14% of the $878b in funding for K-12 education, or $30k per student, but this is far higher than in most OECD countries, so one has to wonder how much goes to the various levels of bureaucracy, and whether having a federal level on top is really necessary. I don't know enough about what the US federal DoE actually does to have an opinion, but it certainly seems worth examining.

dtbb