• ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 months ago

    FWIW the US federal budget for 2024 is going to be about $6.8 trillion dollars. So that $1.3 billion is about 0.019% of the total budget. I’d call that a slap on the wrist for the billionaire class except that you can actually feel a slap on the wrist.

    • spidermanchild@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      2 months ago

      That’s entirely the wrong denominator for this comparison. IRS doesn’t write the budget nor do they write tax law, they just collect.

      • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        1 month ago

        Fine, revenues are $4.9 trillion. My point is that $1.9 billion is literally a drop in the bucket - hardly an example of the IRS “going after rich people”.

        • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          1 month ago

          But … It’s an increase, right?

          Are we okay with incremental improvements, or will only big bang headline news story type improvements be okay?

          • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 month ago

            Is it an increase? The article @macattack cited does not give any data on how much the IRS collected from high-income earners before this additional push supposedly funded by the Inflation Reduction Act. The article does mention that Republicans in congress recently rescinded more than $20 billion in additional IRS funding, which does suggest that the net benefit was far less than $1.3 billion and might even have been negative. It seems like the kind of breathless article the impact of which relies on people not well understanding the difference between a billion and a trillion.