How a tax chart proves we have a spending problem...

Federal revenue has been stable as a percent of GDP since the late 1940s. What has changed is we are spending more...

Via US Government Revenue:

Dems: Give us another trillion to spend...

Democrats want another trillion dollars in new revenue...

Via The Hill:

Democrats say they want to raise as much as $1 trillion in new revenues through tax reform later this year to balance Republican demands to slash mandatory spending.

Democratic leaders have had little time to craft a new position for their party since passing a tax deal Tuesday that will raise $620 billion in revenue over the next 10 years.  

Priceless: New 50% British Tax Rate Causes Revenue To Drop Sharply

Wake up and Pay attention President Obama.

Shockingly, well off Britons maneuvered their finances to avoid the new 50% tax rate. Who would have thought it?

The amount of income tax paid fell sharply last month in the first formal indication that the new 50p higher rate is not raising the expected amount of revenue.

The Treasury received £10.35 billion in income tax payments from those paying by self-assessment last month, a drop of £509 million compared with January 2011. Most other taxes produced higher revenues over the same period.

Senior sources said that the first official figures indicated that there had been “manoeuvring” by well-off Britons to avoid the new higher rate. The figures will add to pressure on the Coalition to drop the levy amid fears it is forcing entrepreneurs to relocate abroad.

Chart of the Day: Federal Spending vs Revenue

A close look at this chart reveals our government has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. You can see there are revenue drops after the 9/11 attack and the 2008 recession. However, the angle of the spending line becomes steeper around 2002 and almost goes vertical after Obama takes office.

Via The Heritage Foundation:

Tax revenues in severe decline

The economic recession has tax revenues in a severe decline. Meanwhile, Congress is still spending money like "drunken sailors on shore leave." Actually, that is a disservice to drunken sailors. They will stop spending when they run out of money.

From AP via Yahoo:

The recession is starving the government of tax revenue, just as the president and Congress are piling a major expansion of health care and other programs on the nation’s plate and struggling to find money to pay the tab.

The numbers could hardly be more stark: Tax receipts are on pace to drop 18 percent this year, the biggest single-year decline since the Great Depression, while the federal deficit balloons to a record $1.8 trillion.

Other figures in an Associated Press analysis underscore the recession’s impact: Individual income tax receipts are down 22 percent from a year ago. Corporate income taxes are down 57 percent. Social Security tax receipts could drop for only the second time since 1940, and Medicare taxes are on pace to drop for only the third time ever.

Graphic from AP.