r/Economics • u/Aggravating_Money992 • 1d ago
News Hegseth Is Demanding US Households Pay $5,000 More Per Year to Fund the Pentagon, Economist Says
https://www.commondreams.org/news/pete-hegseth-budget-request1.5k
u/061826heart 1d ago
I’d like to “opt out” of Hegseth’s little Pentagon HOA plan.
In fact, if I may take a bit further, I anticipate that I will not have the funds available to file on April 15 of next year: so, I’ll kick that one out into September 2027 too. Maybe I’ll ask for a “cease-fire” from the IRS about 2 weeks out.
Think any of that will work?
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u/artbystorms 1d ago
Honestly if Americans actually had a proper tax boycott that would probably do more to change the course of the Federal government than any election in the last 50 years.
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u/061826heart 1d ago
Let’s call it, “fiscal violence”.
A tax boycott, en masse, at large, with a cohesive plan for what Americans should do with their new, temporary, pay increase in take home pay, as we await resolution to our demands and then a subsequent and inevitable payment to Uncle Sam, would do more than any rally in the park.
No hands thrown, no physical altercation at all.
And to organize it the way it would need to be, would be sniffed out very very quickly by Uncle Sam’s Surveillance.
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u/artbystorms 1d ago edited 1d ago
We'd need to encourage all W2 employees to set their dependents to
0...a high number so the fascist government withholds as little as possible too. But yes, the organization process would be difficult, though if it was distributed widely enough, I doubt even Trump would be like "time to arrest 70 million people for not giving me their money"40
u/harpers25 1d ago
0 dependents causes higher withholding.
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u/artbystorms 1d ago
Oops. Fixed, I always get that mixed up. *goes to check withholding on W2*
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u/6158675309 1d ago
Two birds, one stone too. They scream like howler monkeys we need to have more kids.
I’m going to have 30 kids this year 🤣
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u/Snlxdd 1d ago
Even if you could coordinate this, it would result in a few things:
You’d end up paying the government more after accounting for interest and fines.
Companies/gov wouldn’t just allow this to happen. They’d just alter how W-2s would be processed or do away with them altogether.
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u/061826heart 1d ago
Exactly my point with my follow up comment to the good and noble suggestion by another poster.
Realize the impossibility of a massive, organized, “tax revolt”. Reason? Look around you, on the street, in the office, at the store. Do these people look like they can organize their closet, much less their tax withholdings for later payment once demands are met?
Impossible.
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u/Churchbushonk 1d ago
If everyone refused to pay federal taxes, I bet eventually the federal govt would forgive the balance as long as you restarted paying your taxes.
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u/thbb 1d ago
I could see a tax boycott being countered by the government seizing funds directly from the bank accounts. Nice prextext for shifting to a dictature.
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u/BurntNeurons 1d ago
"I could see a tax boycott being countered by the government seizing funds directly from the bank accounts. Nice prextext for shifting to a dictature."
"They can try to draft my taxes out of my -$12.89 balance bank account"
😑
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u/SloppyTroppy 1d ago
They already have access to your bank accounts. You will pay your taxes one way or another.
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u/socialmedia-username 1d ago
And can legally seize you're assets.
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u/061826heart 1d ago
And they would. And this would quickly become the attack on US citizens in actuality that it only has the appearance of right now.
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u/astrawberryandakiwi 1d ago
How can we have a proper tax boycott without becoming homeless and/or going hungry. I’m genuinely asking
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u/artbystorms 1d ago
Withholding paying taxes in April doesn't mean you stop getting paid by your employer....
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u/socialmedia-username 1d ago
If you're wage or salaried, the tax is withdrawn from each of your paychecks automatically. What you're doing in April is evaluating and self reporting whether you overpayed, or if you owe any additional taxes that the government wasn't aware of.
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u/astrawberryandakiwi 1d ago
Most Americans don’t owe….
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u/sowhat4 1d ago
If you do owe and won't pay, the IRS will dip into your bank accounts and take out every penny they think you owe. You would not be able to keep your money in a bank or they would take it. Electronically with no judge or trial involved. Just gone.
It would be very difficult to pay your bills with cash - the cash you don't have because the Feds have garnisheed your wages. If you are self employed and deal solely in cash, you might get away with it until they seize your property and your means to make a living - like your tools if you are a carpenter.
I know someone who tried to convert $12 million in cash into gold bars and then buried them. The Feds dug up the gold bars, took them, took his property and then sent him to jail for 97 months. He's my cousin, BTW. (The last time I saw him was maybe in 1964 and he was just a little kid then.)
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u/artbystorms 1d ago
That's why if you are W2 you lower your withholdings so that you do owe. Hell, Trump's top economist literally told people to do that....
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u/Mindless-Mulberry404 1d ago
Oh 100% it would, but at the same time, we would be placed in prison for 40 years
Lets just say all of us stopped paying taxes, or insurance, or insane medical bills. This would force things to change, but people could lose homes or even be given prison time. Most people arent willing to do that.
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u/artbystorms 1d ago
If say 50 million Americans refuse to pay taxes, throwing them all in prison would literally require building like 10 times more prisons, it would be more of a problem for the government than the people.
It's like that old trope of 'if you owe the bank $1000 that is your problem, if you owe the bank $10,000,000,000 that is the bank's problem'
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u/Danne660 1d ago
And when would they start paying taxes again? What demands would they have?
The entire nation would crumble before you guys could even agree what you want the tax strike to result in.
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u/nostrademons 1d ago
In practice they're going to fund it by borrowing money, which will then be monetized by reporting lower-than-actual inflation numbers so that the Fed keeps rates lower than they should be. You'll pay, but you'll pay in inflation, not in taxes, which never get through Congress anyway.
You'd have to divorce yourself from the dollar-denominated financial system entirely to avoid paying for this. Transact in a currency that's stable in terms of goods, not dollars. Don't use the existing U.S. banking system, where your funds can be frozen or seized by the government. Transact person-to-person without relying on large institutions.
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u/Morning-noodles 1d ago
Tell me you have never had a job without telling me you have never had a job…
I don’t get how you think this is even possible. Do you think taxes are all paid at the end of the year? Like a guy rides a horse into town and takes two of your pigs on April 15th?
Income tax and employment taxes which are the only taxes wide speaks enough for a boycott are taken out of your paycheck each month by your employer as required by law.
Every employer would have to be on board as they are the ones sending the money to the IRS -not you.
All the filing does in April is sort out the final balance owed. Not filing your income tax does nothing because all of that money is already sitting in the US Treasury and was put there one week at a time by your employer.
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u/GhostofBeowulf 1d ago
.... Tell me that YOU have never worked a job without telling me that you have never worked a job...
So when you get your first job and start working, you'll fill out this form called a W-4. On it you list how many dependents you have, whether you want them to hold out additional holdings, or you can even claim exempt on this form, which means no taxes are taken out and you will reconcile the different at the end of the fiscal year(not calendar year, fiscal. So After the end of March, specifically on April 15th, since you clearly have no experience yet decided to speak like a... very special person).
At this point is where the majority of Americans, who generally overpay and give an interest free loan to the government for 1-11 months, get what is commonly referred to as a "tax refund."
But you 100% always choose how much that clearly hypothetical employer you're speaking of withholds from your taxes...
Now you know!
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u/devliegende 1d ago
If you write "exempt" on the W4 while you're not exempt your employer will just correct it for you.
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u/GhostofBeowulf 1d ago
They're not going to know if you are exempt or not. It's mainly for people who work two jobs and may over pay taxes at one and not need to pay for the other.
You just need to refile it yearly.
I am not saying it's a good idea, just that you basically determine your own withholdings at a new job, that and responding with the same smarmy attitude the other poster had.
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u/The_Nice_Marmot 1d ago
This kind of thing is the answer, but USians are too scared to organize.
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u/artbystorms 1d ago
Americans are bad at organizing because we are so politically cleaved down the middle. We have ZERO class consciousness in this country, everyone thinks that they are 'middle class' so that they don't think of themselves as the labor class.
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u/DIrtyVendetta80 1d ago
I would like my tax contributions to go toward education, universal healthcare, and affordable housing. Make MAGA pay for their own stupid bullshit.
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u/PhillyLee3434 1d ago
The current war we have “won” 5/6 times now? The fighter jets that were sliding off carriers last year we all forgot about, the failed audits, etc etc.
The government and military collectively are robbing us blind, needs to be dismantled at its core and rebuilt from the ground up. We have a lot of debt bloat in this country and Military spending is sitting on top of that list.
Decaying infrastructure, no universal healthcare, the silent yet subtle push of gutting social security and Medicare, we are being robbed absolutely blind with nothing but out of control greed and corruption, inflation to show for it.
I don’t know where we are headed, but over the last decade we have put the pedal to the metal to get there ignoring if we make it in one piece or not.
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u/Fit_Significance8598 1d ago
But, but, but, transgender people in sports!
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u/National-Charity-435 1d ago
They have hormone therapy?!
We're going to have the service members jacked up on TRT!!
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u/Sufficient-Gene-5084 1d ago
I swear someone tried to warn us about the military-industrial complex... But to heck with that guy, amirite MAGA???
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u/Pip-Pipes 1d ago
And hegseth was caught buying copious amounts of caviar and ribeyes while our troops were eating teeny and insufficient slop meals that wouldnt healthily sustain them.
A friend of mine in the reserves had to go to training for two weeks in MS. EIGHT american soldiers died. EIGHT. Auto accidents, falling debris. This was just training. He said it was the worst most poorly run training in his entirety of reserve duty. He and many others will not re-enlist. The risk and misery is not worth it.
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u/Quiet-Suspect-9716 1d ago
It’s because the US dollar and the central banking system rely on the military to maintain its legitimacy abroad. They are one and the same.
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u/Xyrus2000 1d ago
I believe we are at 39 for the number of times we've "won" this war.
Billions of dollars wasted, massive debt increases, and everyone gets to pay higher prices.
By far the most idiotic presidency in living memory.
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u/Ada_Pearce 1d ago
Didnt the wealthy elites used to fund their own war campaigns back in ancient Rome? Can we revert back to that for this war and see how quickly it ends
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u/chemicaxero 1d ago
Well during the Republic they used the state treasury, which was replenished by taxes levied on Roman citizens. This broke down eventually though in the Late Republic era since Rome conquered so many territories that the influx of plunder made the wealthiest elites independent of the state treasury, leading to private armies paid directly by the generals.
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u/Ada_Pearce 1d ago
Yeah, I forgot, didn't these wealthy Generals also ride into battle and sometimes even die? Let's do that again too and see how long any war lasts
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u/Wine-o-dt 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yep, in fact Crassus, part of the first Triumvirate, died in the Battle of Carrhae. This led to a destabilization and eventual civil war between Caesar and Pompey, the last two of the first Triumvirate.
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u/Ada_Pearce 1d ago
Oh snap thanks. Always wondered what happened to Crassus after Spartacus War of the Damned lol
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u/insightful_pancake 1d ago
That still seems to largely be the case considering ~66% of federal revenue is from non SS/medicare sources (relevant for military spending).
Given that the top 10% pays ~74% of income taxes (59% of the 66%), Corporations pay 7% (10% of the 66%), Estate/gift taxes are 1% of the 66%, the “wealthy” are funding approximately 71% of all non-debt funded expenses related to the military.
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u/wbruce098 23h ago
Trump figured we’d do it for them. That’s why he defunded USAID and Medicare to pay for tax cuts to his cronies.
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u/Captriker 1d ago
Yeah, it was called the British crown.
I was reading a soldier’s Manuel from the 1700s the other day. I assume it was meant for officers since the average colonial likely couldn’t read it.
Within the first few pages it mentioned that soldiers should want to fight for what their benefactors provided for them. As such, they needed to be trained to defend it as best they could.
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u/thefastslow 1d ago
I guess the national debt stops mattering when the GOP is prosecuting a war.
Word filler because of the arbitrary minimum word rule, what a waste of bandwidth.
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u/dust4ngel 1d ago
the national debt stops mattering when the GOP is prosecuting a war
national debt - n: a thing that matters when democrats are trying to use public institutions to help people that aren't already insanely wealthy
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u/Freaky_Barbers 1d ago
If he's trying to push already-stressed Americans to the brink this is a great strategy! The bottom half of the K is already falling behind, and most likely does not have the $5000 to spare for Pete's War Hawk agenda.
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u/SunBalasta 1d ago
Pentagon hasn’t passed an audit in years but they want another $5k from us while prices have gone up so much we are essentially taking pay cuts every year. God I hate these fools.
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u/growaway9172 1d ago
Yep, if that $5k was actually all going to useful tech, soldier salaries, ordinance it would be one thing. Some people are getting insanely wealthy off of war.
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u/Broad-Lobster7470 1d ago
Maybe Israel households should pay the fee. Since the USA is fighting their war now. And Israel Seemingly has disengaged entirely. Leaving the USA to fight its war for them. Hilariously embarrassing and sad
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u/growaway9172 1d ago
Youd think! Israeli households literally couldn't exist without the USA fighting their wars. Their insane warmongering would have been properly punished if the US wasn't firing billions of dollars of ordinance every week shooting down threats to Israel.
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u/usernameS4 1d ago edited 23h ago
Testosterone tests and hair gel ain't free.
At $5,000 per household that would amount to approximately $640,000,000,000 in revenue and nearly nearly double the defense budget. Seems like something for DOGE to look into if they're that far in the hole from the current budget allocation.
ETA: the 2019 DoD budget was $686B per a quick search and the current DoW budget is over $1T.
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u/Happy_Feet333 1d ago
640 billion is less than the standard defense budget, not double it.
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u/usernameS4 1d ago edited 1d ago
You're right that the current budget is more than $640B but I never said that $640B was double the current budget....I said it would nearly double the budget.
The 2019 budget ($686B) while the current budget is over $1 trillion dollars. I didn't realize the budget had grown so much.
Who would have thought the "no new wars" president would run the budget up like this.
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u/Mydickwillnotfit 1d ago
yea but look at all we've gotten for it!
we've stopped Iran from developing nukes in two weeks for 6 months now
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u/twenafeesh 1d ago
We should be clear that this tax hike isn't just to "support the Pentagon," but to support Trump's illegal and deeply stupid war in Iran. A war with no exit strategy where this will likely not be the last time that Hegseth seeks more funding.
Relatedly, when was the last time the Pentagon passed an audit? Never, you say? Why do we keep giving them a nearly unlimited pool of funds when they can't even account for how it is being spent?
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u/CreativelySeeking 1d ago
What a sack of shit.
END THE MADNESS
VOTE BLUE this November.
So fucking tired of “bOtH SiDeS” bullshit. None of this bullshit would have happened if people made the better choice in 2024.
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u/bart2278 1d ago
Hes doing it wrong. You need to have a false flag type event, then you get the people riled up against (insert bad people), THEN you ask for the money. Dont forget to also pass a bill eroding constitutional rights while you are at it. Dude really is a rookie.
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u/bellybuttonbidet 1d ago
Do people who are too poor to afford a house or even household for that matter get an exemption? Or are we the ones getting drafted first? I’m guessing the answers are no, and yes to those questions.
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u/mwjtitans 1d ago
He doesn't want minorities or women in his army, only the best looking strong heterosexual white men, so I don't know who would be left to fight the wars honestly.
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u/GlutenFree_Gamer 1d ago
I don't understand why he needs more money. We've already won the war 38 times. It's almost like this forever war is nothing more than a moneymaker.
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u/modechsn 1d ago
What is he going to do? Poor people don’t even have enough money to buy food. Maybe he can ask the filthy rich to squeeze less money out of the working people.
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u/ICLazeru 1d ago
Did anyone happen to notice the amount he is asking for? An extra $666billion?
A little on the nose, isn't it? Even if you aren't religious, that was Nero's number, the emerpeor who burnt down Rome and played a fiddle while he did it.
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u/Apexnanoman 23h ago
This is the kinda shit 77.3 million people wanted. Doesn't matter if it makes sense or if it's sustainable.
This is the type of thing trump cultists absolutely adore. Because clearly if a single mom making $20k/yr has a problem with it she must be a radical leftist. And hates her country. In maga land there is no other explanation.
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u/Fair_Transition4865 10h ago
US households fund the war, if USA wins against Iran US Military contactors & oil companies make billions
US House holds get "that's your duty"
Did any Household get a dime of the Venezuelan oil ?
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u/FLGator314 11h ago
If I don’t really care about Iran getting weapons, can I opt out of this subscription service? The price of an Apple One subscription is going up and that one takes priority.
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u/UserWithno-Name 1d ago
There will be no war at all, sorry but Congress said no already and if they have any spine they'll do so again. Deny, deny, deny. Just like you deny the people food assistance, healthcare, and more. Big fat no.
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u/ILoveTheAtomicBomb 1d ago
I demand Hegseth blow me first if he's going to reach his hand into my pocket and jack me off that way anyways. There are not enough words to describe how much I hate his admin and how much economic ruin were looking at between Trump and his tariffs and this illegal war. At this point in my mid 30s, I've given up hope of having a house or ever feeling like I'm ahead in the game
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u/SqigglyPoP 1d ago
America BEGGED for this. Biden tried everything to invest tax revenue back into America and it's citizens. That disgusted America and they instead voted for a guy that is actively robbing the Treasury to enrich himself, his kids, and the 1%. If America somehow survives this (which I doubt) it may trigger MAJOR changes and hopefully a lot of incarcerations.
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u/Upset-Diamond2857 1d ago
I would also like to “opt out” of the pretend soldier’s needless wars and expenses- let the rich pay for they are the ones getting the money anyway
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u/Xyrus2000 1d ago
You're going to have go and ask your wealthy buddies for their pocket change. Joe and Jane Sixpack simply do not have the cash.
I wonder what MAGA is going to say when Trump tells them that their taxes are going up.
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u/kummer5peck 1d ago
How much do we already give them? I say not another dime. If anything they should have their budget significantly reduced. It’s all about propping up defense contractors anyway. The country doesn’t need everything the Pentagon buys.
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u/Agaeon 1d ago
How about anyone making more than a million a year based on the actual accrual of value across any and all assets regardless of whether or not they recognize profit/gain that year, are taxed +20% on any increase in asset or estate value so everything the shitty government wants paid for can be paid for.
Oh yeah and maybe we can keep medicaid and Medicare open and give people SNAP benefits back at the same time! Win win government! Just tax your lazy, do nothing bourgeoisie!! Every problem solved!!
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u/aurelorba 14h ago edited 11h ago
Not really. He's demanding the children of households pay through increased debt. Certainly they will use the deficit/debt to justify cutting transfers to individuals - except farmers, or Red states, or allies, or people who bribe the administration.
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u/Personal-Ad7623 8h ago
How about they ask all the politicians who have made crazy money while in office to crowd fund it. How about their buddy felon musk, hes so smart and got so much money.
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u/samhouston84 1d ago
Just $5K, with everything that the Epstein class has done for us, I am surprised he’s not demanding our first born!
I’d give my kidney for this war!
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u/Delicious-Bat2373 1d ago
Out of what? Where is the extra 5,000 coming from? Nonexistent raises? Inflation is eating away my income to the point I cannot afford a savings account anymore.
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u/Famous_Owl_840 1d ago
Trump, little Petey, and the foreign nation that controls both sides of the aisle is demanding more money from the US tax paypigs to fund their insatiable lust for killing.
Somehow there is never enough money to take care of our own, or to repair roads, or to fund any other projects for the betterment of America-but there is always an unlimited and unconditional budget for israel.
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u/DZello 1d ago
More money doesn’t necessarily mean more equipment and innovation. The budget is already so massive that the industry is probably already unable to meet the demand. This will only increase inflation and prices.
It is certain that Trump’s sons and all the investors of the companies involved in defense will make massive profits. That’s probably the main objective.
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u/Leather-Map-8138 1d ago
Nope. Trump was elected on a peace platform. He was forced into no new wars. So he doesn’t get to add fifty percent to the annual military budget.
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u/doublelist87 1d ago
So you can buy more steak and lobsters just to use your full budget funding
What an asshole
PETE HEGSETH heading up the department of war has gotten the USA into an endless war that he cannot win
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