IRS collects milestone $1B in back taxes from high-wealth taxpayers

During Fiscal Year (FY) 2023, the IRS collected nearly $4.7 trillion in gross taxes, processed almost 271.5 million tax returns and other forms, and issued about $659.1 billion in tax refunds. [1]

IRS’s actual expenditures were just over $16.1 billion for overall op­erations in Fiscal Year (FY) 2023. [2]

[1] https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-irs-data-book

[2] https://www.irs.gov/statistics/irs-budget-and-workforce

More context:

- The US Defense Budget alone is $842 billion for 2024 [1] - The US has given over $90 billion to Israel and Ukraine in 2024 [2]

All funded by debt. $1 billion here is theater to make us feel good about "sticking it to the rich"

We talk about getting the rich to "pay their fair share" as if the whole tax system isn't designed to get that money into the hands of whoever is greasing our politicians' palms. Good ol' military industrial complex.x

[1] https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/332687... [2] https://www.cfr.org/article/us-aid-israel-four-charts

How is it all funded by debt? OP says the IRS collected $4.7T in taxes. So the military budget is 17% of the collected taxes, and the aide to Israel/Ukraine is <2% of all the collected taxes.

Why does debt matter?

In 2023 the US had a deficit of $1.7T which we borrowed to cover by issuing Treasury bonds.

You could debate which part of the $6.4T was funded by debt, but it seems reasonable to say that foreign aid is not a mandatory expenditure. That also doesn't mean it's not worth borrowing for.

There is a helluva lot of fat to cut in the budget. Ukraine aid should not be the first port of call.

It is not mandatory by law. But if you want to keep being a superpower it very much is. Projecting your power and maintaining your commitments is a major part of that.

> if you want to keep being a superpower

Foreign aid is about avoiding war. The hope is the belligerents will end things themselves, or at the very least delay the point where we have to ship soldiers.