Mandatory Spending In The United States

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Right now the United States debt is at $18.4 trillion and we pay $220 billion on interest per year. The United States gets $3.2 trillion in taxes each year which goes into mandatory spending, discretionary spending, and interest of federal debt. Mandatory spending largely consists of social security and Medicare. Also, mandatory spending cannot be changed by congress due to the fact that by law the United States is required to give a certain amount of money to each mandatory spending program. Then there is discretionary spending which consists of money going toward the military, transportation, education, government, etc. The main amount of discretionary spending goes towards the military at almost $6 billion a year which takes up more than …show more content…
This is because both the Democrats and Republicans who are deciding the laws are the elite, the rich. They do not want to raise taxes for their own benefit. Another cause is spending more than we have. We spend more than we have in years that we have low taxes meaning that the United States does not get an adequate amount of money to fund mandatory spending, discretionary spending, and interest of federal debt. In these years the United State government borrows money from the United States Treasury. This then puts us in a deficit like we are in now. For instance the total debt ceiling which is a number put together by congress is at $18.1 trillion and are total debt is at $18.4 trillion which puts us at a deficit of about $4 billion dollars. When we try to figure out what to do about the United States debt there are two major stances. One being the Democratic stance and the other being the Republican stance. Keep in mind that both positions will not be for higher taxes. In general the Democratic stance is to raise the ceiling and the Republican stance is that this is an opportunity to “force deeper spending cuts and other …show more content…
The 1% of Americans make about $1.6 million per year and the top .01% make about $250 million a year. The top 1% largely consists of people with management or executive positions when the top .01% consists of people that are senators and other people who are high up in the government. One problem with this is that there is not a level playing field. For example a child in the top .01% is going to have greater educational advantage because their parents can afford for them to go to private school throughout their educational journey and they will have more time to study because they have do not have to worry about cooking dinner and doing dishes. They have a larger amount of time to focus on their education because they have the money for maids and other household helpers. As a result they will have a chance of getting into prestige’s colleges unlike the child from the top 1% who will not have a chance at all. You could argue that the United States is equal to those who reach for the opportunity. For example everyone has the ability to go to college as long as they take out a serious amount of loans or everyone can make it to the top .01% as long as they work hard enough. This brings about the point that conservatives believe that the United States should not hand people things because their will not be an incentive anymore. Another problem with income inequality is that the top .01% are the ones
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