Get the Facts To Win Your Debate Around US Deficits, Budgets, and Spending Including Universal Basic Income (UBI)

Lately things like the Universal Basic Income (UBI) and Social Security are debated on TV. Commentators throw around numbers and whether a program can be paid for. Plenty of debate on each side but why not understand for yourself where all these numbers are coming from. In this episode Derek Moore covers what makes up the Federal Budget, Tax Revenue, Interest Payments on Debt, and how much something like a UBI would cost so you can decide. Plus, the effect rising rates and increases in debt with have on annual net interest payments as a percentage of the Federal Budget.

• • What is the Universal Basic Income or UBI?
• • How much would a Universal Basic Income cost?
• • How much is the current US debit held by the public?
• • What is the annual amount of interest paid annually on the US debt?
• • What are the mandatory, discretionary, and net interest payments of the US Federal Budget?
• • How much does Social Security, and Medicaid, Medicare cost?
• • Difference between total US debt and debt held by the public
• • What interest rate does the US pay on its national debt?
• • What percentage of the federal budget does net interest payments on debt make up?
• • What and when were the largest annual budget deficit in the US?
• • Effective historical tax rates versus marginal tax rates
• • How much free cash flow do the largest corporations generate annually?
• • For each additional Trillion in debt, how much more interest needs to be paid?
• • For each 1% increase in interest rates, how much do interest payments rise?

Mentioned in this Episode:

Average interest rates on US Treasury Securities https://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/rates/pd/avg/avg.htm

Annual interest on US debt outstanding

https://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/ir/ir_expense.htm

Gross debt versus debt held by the public explanation

https://www.crfb.org/papers/qa-gross-debt-versus-debt-held-public

Federal surplus or budget deficit historical chart

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFSD

Breaking down the 2020 US Federal Budget

https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-federal-budget-breakdown-3305789

2010 US Census breakdown of adults 18 and over, 62 and over, and total population

https://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-03.pdf

Historical tax revenue as percentage of GDP by year

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFRGDA188S

Historical effective tax rate on top 1%

https://taxfoundation.org/taxes-rich-1950-not-high/

Historical top federal income tax bracket rates

https://bradfordtaxinstitute.com/Free_Resources/Federal-Income-Tax-Rates.aspx