I have been forming a complex fiscal plan in my mind, but I simply lack the data to prove to myself (much less to others) that it is feasible. I have looked all over the Internet and I can't find several vital facts. Most importantly, I need the 2004 fiscal expenditures, complete with totals for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security (the last, as I know, is in a separate fund)- as well as the amount of the deficit. I also need to know how much in revenue Bush's recent tax cuts cost the government, as well as what pre-9/11 annual military spending was. I need the help of stekim, MerlinX, thedreamer, heikstheo and anyone else with extensive knowledge of economics. Thank you very much.

www.fms.treas.gov/fr/04frusg/04frusg.pdf

Unfortunately, the URL that you gave leads to an error message. Do you think that it is a massive government conspiracy (LOL)? I appreciate your effort anyway.

you might try going to www.yahoo.com or www.google.com and typing in "united states government expenditures 2004" and that should lead to the pdf link.

These are the numbers that I got:

1.913 Trillion in Revenue
7.71 Trillion National Debt
412 Billion Annual Deficit
Tax Revenue Actually Increased
1.1 Trillion or Slightly More on Welfare (Excluding Social Security)

And I think you can chalk up one of your findings to Econ 101. Cutting taxes usually (repeat usually) INCREASES tax revenue. Like much of Econ it's counter-intuitive, but it's true nonetheless.

There are tons of sites that will give you all the Econ data you want. Since I have to find such info daily if you tell me what you want I can get you a link (there is not one link to everything unfortunately).

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I wasn't born with enough middle fingers.

I was already familiar with the Laffer Curve concept.

There is enough historical and empirical evidence to show pretty clearly that high tax rates reduce governmental revenue when compared to lower rates (up to a point, of course).

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I wasn't born with enough middle fingers.

This may be utterly tangential, but what is your political compass score, stekim? I need it in order to settle whether politicalcompass.org is biased against fiscal conservatives or not. Thank you very much.

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I wasn't born with enough middle fingers.