In January 2009, President Barack Obama was sworn in as president. Almost immediately, the Tea Party sprang up, proclaiming they were "Taxed Enough Already". All who opposed the president (and the concept of liberalism in general) began complaining that government was too big, and they needed tax relief. Politicians of every stripe proclaim every election cycle that they will "cut taxes".
The reality is that family federal income tax rates have been
dropping for decades. For an "average" family of four, they paid their highest rate (11.79%) in 1981. Since then rates have dropped steadily with some minor fluctuations. In 2014, the rate was 5.34%, less than half the rate in 1981. There's not much lower that they can go.
Because of this we've had to cut federal spending as well, and budget deficits have become harder to erase with decreasing tax revenue for government programs. As has been the case for decades, our military is our single biggest budget item. Our military spending is a much larger percentage of our budget than most of our allies, which is why they have high-speed trains, high-speed internet, free college, and complete low-cost health care coverage, and we don't.
You'd hope that all that taxpayer money that gets fed into the maw of the military-industrial complex would get spent on worthwhile things. The reality is much more grim.
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