The 2024 Financial Report of the United States (available online) was presented by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on January 16, 2025.This editorial will point out facts and give my opinion. I am not an expert on the US Budget but some facts stand out.

Page 61 of the report is the Statement of Operations and Changes in Net Position for the Year Ending September 30, 2024. The numbers provided are in Trillions of dollars. Total Revenue $3.17 Net Cost $5.01 An additional item called “Intergovernmental Transfers” adds $ 0.53 billion dollars making the total is $5.54 Trillion Dollars. The Annual Net Operating Loss is $2.37 Trillion Dollars.

The US Financial position (net amount of debt) as of September 30, 2024, was $43.59 Trillion.

We don’t usually deal with Trillions of dollars, so an example is necessary. Example, assume the “Jones family” has the same financial position as the United States:

Jones Family Annual Income $31,700

LESS: Jones Family Annual Expenses $55,400

Loss 2024 $23,700 Jones Total Debt on 9/30/2024 $435,900

The Jones family would not be able to borrow and creditors would be after them.

The United States needs spending cuts AND more tax revenue. Tax statistics for 2022 are found at irs.gov/taxstatistics. In 2022 only 1.5% of returns showed Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) of over $500,000 and those taxpayers paid 5.1% of all Individual Income tax paid. If the tax rate for income over $500,000 were 100%, the added income collected would not cover the deficit.

Cutting spending is hard and everyone will not agree on every cut. But raising taxes is also hard and the tax increases will be necessary for many tax brackets.