Simple math

Our illustrious President is once again using his bully pulpit to preach for tax increases. He says that he will veto any bill sent to him that includes spending cuts without a tax increase. Once again a spoiled child stomping his foot and throwing a temper tantrum. Here is some simple math that should help even the most simple minded understand that we cannot tax our way out of the hole we are in.

Our current debt is  $14,750,000,000,000 (14.75 trillion dollars)
Our current Federal tax revenue is $2,275,000,000,000 (2.28 trillion dollars)
Now even the most uneducated can see the difference. These numbers came from http://www.usdebtclock.org/ (careful, clicking this link will scare the crap out of you)
If we, every person living in the U.S. donated 1 dollar everyday it would take 64 years to pay off the debt. To pay off all the unfunded liabilities it would take another 500 years.
Or every person living in the U.S. owes $42000
I'm not a genius mathematician, but here's what I know. There are one thousand billions in a trillion, so for the sake of argument let's say that we confiscated the all the money from the 15 richest people in the U.S.
That would come to $343.1 billion dollars "just a drop in the bucket". Do the math yourself , here's the list of U.S. billionaires

#	Name	Net worth (USD)	Sources of wealth
1	Bill Gates	$54 billion	Microsoft, Cascade Investments LLC
2	Warren Buffett	$45 billion	Berkshire Hathaway
3	Larry Ellison	$27 billion	Oracle Corporation
4	Christy Walton	$23.4 billion	Wal-Mart, inherited
5	Charles Koch	$21.5 billion	Koch Industries, inherited
6	David Koch	$21.5 billion	Koch Industries, inherited
7	Jim Walton	$20.1 billion	Wal-Mart, inherited
8	Alice Walton	$20 billion	Wal-Mart, inherited
9	S. Robson Walton	$19.7 billion	Wal-Mart, inherited
10	Michael Bloomberg	$18 billion	Bloomberg L.P.
11	Larry Page	$15 billion	Google
12	Sergey Brin	$15 billion	Google
13	Sheldon Adelson	$14.7 billion	Las Vegas Sands
14	George Soros	$14.2 billion	Hedge Funds
15	Michael Dell	$14 billion	Dell Inc.

Most people can't comprehend 14 trillion, it's a number most of us would never have to calculate. So, here are a few examples of what 14 trillion would be in the real world.

• Days- 14 trillion days ago the Universe didn't even exist yet...It would still be another 24 billion years before the Big Bang.
• People - 14 TRILLION people would fully populate another 2,332 Earth sized planets!
• Inches - 1,647,360,000 inches will circle the planet at the equator. We would circle the planet 8,500 times if we moved 14 Trillion inches.
• Square inches - About the size of a postage stamp, more or less.14 Trillion square inches would completely cover Yellowstone National Park.
• Land - The entire land surface of the planet is only 58 million square miles. It would take 244,290 earth type planets to equal 14 trillion

So tell me again how taxing a few people to death is going to solve the problem? I agree that there are many areas that the U.S. government is the best entity to manage. However I also believe that money anyone earns is their's, not the U.S. government's. Without HUGE spending cuts there is now way to tax our way out of this mess. That of course would mean that some government agencies would have to go and some bureaucrats might actually have to go out and get a real job. But then there is that nasty 12% unemployment rate. Because, we've already made any manufacturers criminals thanks to government bureaucracies so they went overseas. 


Here's some ideas;

• Secure the borders, the billions we save on schooling, medical, welfare etc. will pay for that.
• Pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan, billions saved there,
• Eliminate do nothing agencies like the Dept. of Energy, they were established during the Carter administration to decrease our dependence on foreign fuels. They've done a marvelous job don't you think?
• Make the U.S. manufacturer friendly again and impose tariffs on any country that we don't share even trade with. Same taxes and tariffs go for companies based here and used foreign labor.
• Reform the Tort codes so that, stupid people can't sue because of their stupidity. Think about it, every warning label you see is because of some idiot doing exactly what that label says no to do.
• Reform Social Security, it was never intended to be a retirement account. It was meant to be a safety net. Let's take a look at the way the money is spent there. For example, I know a man who gets disability through Social Security and so do his 5 kids because he isn't able to work.They have a 3500sq. ft. home with a pool, 3 of his kids have brand new cars, as do he and his wife. Now I don't think that they should live in abject poverty but, if he can spend 3 days a week launching his boat and fishing the delta. I think there is some work he can do somewhere. How about if you not legal you get no money? No other country will pay you if you don't have a work visa, why do we?

I'm just a simple guy, I don't have an MBA nor doctorate and I will never be President. But if I can see these problems and some solutions, why can't our politicians?