• ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      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
          ·
          2 months 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 The article does mention that Republicans in congress recently rescinded more than $20 billion in additional IRS funding, which does suggest that the net benefit was far less than $1.3 billion and might even have been negative.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.