According to the Monthly Treasury Statement, the federal government collected a record $4,896,119,000,000 in total taxes from October 2021 through September 2022.
The previous record of total taxes collected was $4,377,816,830,000 and current numbers show an increase of 11.8% or an additional $518,302,170,000 of taxes collected in 2022.
The record setting number of $4,896,119,000,000 of total taxes collected includes $2,632,145,000,000 from individuals filing their tax returns, $1,483,526,000,000 in social insurance and taxes from retirement accounts, $99,908,000,000 from customs, $87,726,000,000 from excise taxes, $32,550,000,000 from estate transfers and gift taxes, and $135,397,000,000 in miscellaneous tax receipts.
Even with this record setting tax collection, the federal government continues to spend at all time highs with budget negotiations looming and continuing to run CR’s or short term legislation to fund the government. In fiscal 2022, the federal government spent a total of $6,271,508,000,000. The result of this massive spending is a deficit of $1,375,389,000,000.
For the past four years, the federal government has spent more than a trillion dollars above what it collected in tax revenue. Eight out of the last Fourteen years, the federal government has run up a deficit of a trillion dollars or more.
The record high of federal spending was $7,471,371,670,000 in 2020 followed by the second record high of $7,377,360,790,000 in 2021. Even with the slight decline in spending, the past three years have seen the highest federal spending in history.
With plans from the Biden Administration to forgive student loan debts, the federal spending and overall budget deficits will inevitably climb to new records.
What made America great in the past? A strong middle class. The share of adults who live in middle-class households fell from 61% in 1971 to 50% in 2021, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of government data. Why? The income of upper-income households has increased more than that of middle- or lower-income households, seeing a 69% increase vs 50% for middle-income and 45% for lower-income. But the raw numbers show even greater disparity. In 1970, upper-income households earned approx. $130,000 (in adjusted 2020 dollars) versus almost $220k in 2020. Middle-income households went from $60k to $90k, and lower-income households went from $20k to $29k. The income and wealth disparity in America is as large as it has ever been in our history.
So how do we make the middle class strong again? Investments in education, health care, and infrastructure. And we pay for these things with higher marginal tax rates on higher earners. When ronald reagan took office, the highest marginal tax rate was 70%! (Prior to that, 90% tax rates!) And by the time he left, it was 28%. That one administration set the tone for taxation through to today. Meanwhile, the rich have only gotten richer. It is time to bring back the high tax rates on excessive earnings. Rebuild the middle class with infrastructure projects, publicly-funded college education (we already fund K-12, why not K-14 or K-16?), and publicly-funded healthcare (which is arguably cheaper than the for-profit system we have now). This is the economic equity we should all be demanding.
https://taxfoundation.org/historical-income-tax-rates-brackets/