There has been a long-standing problem with balancing the United States federal budget. As it stands, our country is in a deficit of $438.9 billion due to increasing expenditures and not enough collection of revenues to balance them out. Many changes can be proposed to lower this deficit, but they appeal differently to members on opposing sides of the political spectrum. As a liberal, I am in favor of a structured government that protects every individual in order to form an equal society. This includes an emphasis on issues such as universal healthcare, environmental awareness, and support for the lower classes. I believe that our government has a responsibility to maintain a high quality of life for all residents of the United States. Therefore, the changes that I would make to the budget will reduce unnecessary spending, and will put an emphasis on getting those in higher classes to pay their equal share in taxes, thus protecting the middle and lower classes. In order to balance the United States federal budget, I propose cutting military expenditures, raising the maximum payroll tax for Social Security, and increasing corporate taxes.
The United States devotes 15.3% of the federal budget to military programs. While there is clear importance in the safety of the country, this large sum of money can be lowered. This will be done by reducing the cost of procurements and operations, as well as cutting the funding for military personnel where it is no longer needed. There are several ways to cut small, yet significant amounts from the military budget. The F-35 Joint Striker Program, “the military’s largest aircraft development program” (Summary Table of Options), can be replaced by creating more advanced versions of fighter aircrafts that are already in production, and the number of ballistic missile submarines used by the navy can be reduced. Also, there are increasing numbers of military personnel in support positions that could easily be replaced by civilian employees that would require less pay (Adebayo). Finally, the budget for the international affairs program can be reduced by about 25% to save an additional $23 billion from the budget. The largest change that can be proposed to the military budget, however, will be made possible by taking the troops out of conflict areas in the Middle East. The United States, on average, has spent $116.1 billion annually over the 15 years of conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq (Crawford). If the government finally ends our involvement and removes the troops positioned in these countries, they would be saving over 20% of military expenditures for personnel and maintenance. There are many citizens who would argue that a strong military needs to be maintained in order to keep our country safe. However, there is a lot of excessive spending on military operations that simply is no longer necessary in an age where conflicts can be resolved with diplomacy. Investing money in the military has become increasingly focused on showing our might than actually needing to fight wars. My proposals would cut $150.1 billion from military expenditures, thus decreasing our federal deficit by almost one third as well as positively impacting society, as less lives will be lost to meaningless international disputes.
A second change that can be made to the federal budget is in raising the maximum payroll tax for Social Security. Currently, the maximum taxable income for this program is $118,500. My proposal would be to raise this value to $319,900 in order to account for 90% of total earnings covered by Social Security. This option would increase tax revenue from social security by 13%, or $102.8 billion, which accounts for almost a quarter of the federal deficit (Pineles-Mark et al. 36). Thus, taxes would be raised on high earners, forcing them to pay their fair share in our society. It can be argued that taxing the wealthier individuals in the United States will hurt the upper class, but in the liberal view, it is only fair for the rich to contribute to tax revenues. The government has a responsibility to the lower classes as well, and increasing the maximum taxable income will support underprivileged individuals who rely on the benefits of Social Security.
The third and final change that I propose in order to fully eliminate the deficit in the federal budget is an increase in corporate taxes. In the year 2015, the federal government collected $343.8 billion from corporate income taxes, which is only 10.6% of its total revenue. However, “back in the 1950s, corporate income tax generated between a quarter and a third of federal revenues” (DeSilver). Although the payroll tax has increased, large corporations have radically decreased the relative share that they pay in federal taxes. Therefore, corporate taxes should be increased by 18.6% in order to generate another $186 billion in revenue. This change would likely not please these large corporations, for 18.6% may seem like a very high amount to be raising taxes by. However, this change would only cause about a 5.1% increase in the share that large corporations contribute to the federal revenue, which is even then considerably lower than their contributions in the past. Therefore, increasing corporate taxes by this amount will fully balance the federal budget, while making taxation more fair as wealthy businesses also contribute their just portion to the United States tax revenue.
The net effect of my three proposed changes combined will entirely eliminate the federal deficit by balancing the budget of the United States. Although they will increase taxes on the upper classes, balancing the federal budget in these ways holds up what I believe should be the function of the United States government, as the rights of the lower classes are protected. The larger implications of these changes include a redirected focus on domestic issues and a reduced focus on international affairs of the military. Also, the wealthy will be contributing their fair share in taxes, and disadvantaged populations will retain the aid that they need from Social Security benefits. In fixing the United States federal budget, I propose to reform the government in ways that help create a society that is truly in favor of the people.