Paygo???

Republicans are focused on the tax increases that will pay for the recent Biden initiatives when the real focus should be on the actual amount of legislative taxes that presently go uncollected.  For example, in 2020, 55 profitable U.S. corporations paid no corporate income taxes.  These corporations reported over $76 trillion dollars of profit and had they paid the 21% corporate income tax on these profits the treasury would have received $1,610,700,000.00 in additional tax revenue, almost the amount of Biden’s rescue legislation and over 10 years, far more than enough to also pay the costs of Biden’s infrastructure proposals without borrowing a single dime.  An additional $500,000,000,000.00 of legislated personal income taxes a year also goes uncollected because of evasion.  Then there’s the amount of lost taxes due to the use of legal deductions and special tax treatments like capital gains, carried interest, and other “tax favors” that result in lower tax rates than the legislated personal income tax rates.  Paying for all of the costs of government is only a problem when so much income avoids being taxed.  The solution to paying for government is not raising tax rates but collecting all of the tax presently legislated.  In fact, even Republicans should recognize if every penny of personal income and corporate profits were subject to the legislated tax rates there would be no problem with a balanced budget.  All of the borrowing, deficit spending, and federal debt is totally the result of granting special favors, exclusions, and exemptions which permit a significant amount of personal income and corporate profits escape being taxed or taxed at preferred rates.  All of these special tax treatments need to come to an end once and for all.