Vanessa Sandri, Dana Eisman, Michelle Lugo

Taxes are a sum of money demanded by the government in order to support federal spending, facilities, and other services.

What gives Congress the power to enforce taxes is in Article 1 Section 8: “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, imposts and excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all Duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.”

No Tax or Duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State according to Article 1 Section 9

States have their own taxes and so can local levels (Ex. the city).

Direct Taxes: direct taxes are on land or buildings which have to be paid by the owner of the property . These stems from the three fifths compromise made by the framers . The states said that if slaves were to be counted in the population in the southern states then those states must pay for them. Therefore the direct tax must be supported by the person who is collecting the tax (levied)

Indirect taxes: taxes that can be collected by another person who is not directly being affected for payment. An example of this is the tax on liquor the person who makes the liquor is paid by the person who buys it.

Progressive Tax: A tax that varies to what you make (based on your income).

Regressive Taxes: Money that is levied at a fixed rate. It doesn’t matter whether the tax payer can pay it or not. Interestingly enough, regressive OASDI (The old age, survivor , and disability insurance programs) and Medicare taxes take more money out of paychecks of low and middle income workers than the progressive federal income tax.

Payroll Taxes: Money that employers are suppose to attain but are withheld from their paychecks.

Estate Tax:. Estate tax is a levy imposed on the assets of the estate or the one who dies congress used the estate tax in 1916 and used the gift tax in 1932 as a loophole  it allows people to avoid estate tax by giving money or property before death.  Anything a husband or wife leaves to the other is taxed only when the surviving spouse dies.  A gift tax is when one is imposed by making a gift of a living person

In 1913 the income tax was given to the 16th amendment Today it is the biggest source of funding for the government .

1918 was when it became one of the largest sources The income tax is flexible in which it can be adjusted to bring congress any amount of money that they

need . It also can be fixed so the ability to pay it is easy .

Custom DutiesCustoms duties: they are taxes brought on goods that are brought into the United States

from other countries (other names are tariffs and import duties). Congress decides the rates and duties. 

What are taxes spent on?Controllable spending: the Congress and the President

decide each year how much money is to be used to help the Federal Government function.  For example, this would include civil service aids, national parks, and aid to education.

 Uncontrollable spending: spending that depends on the laws that created special programs.  Only a law change can change the amount allotted to each part.  The government cannot change the amount received by certain programs without changing laws either!  Uncontrollable spending is over 60% of our budget.They can change eligibility.

Entitlements: Benefits that federal law says must be paid to all those who meet the eligibility requirements, e.g., Medicare, food stamps, and veterans’ pension.

One-fourth of the debt is from interests.The biggest is Social Security

How much money have we accumulated and spent?

Deficit: the yearly shortfall between revenue and spendingSurplus: more income than outcome

Making the Budget for Spending

Public debt: the outstanding indebtedness of the Federal Government.  It can include any unpaid debts and interest on the borrowed sums.

****There is not a limit on how much money the government can borrow!  The Congress has a ceiling, or limit, for the amount that can be borrowed, but the Congress tends to move it to borrow more when necessary.****

The last time the debt ceiling was raised was in August 2011. Without it, the country would have defaulted on its loans. Consequently, the economy and loans to the US would plummet.

How is money borrowed?The Treasury Department issues securities to

investors after Congress allows federal borrowing.  Investors are usually individuals, banks, investment companies, and other financial businesses.  The securities are known as notes or bills for short-term borrowing and bonds for long-term borrowing.

The government promises to pay these back with interest by a certain date. Interest rates are lower for the government than the rates for other things.

People trust the government to pay back loans because it is the only one able to do so.

*Federal securities cannot be taxed by state or local governments.

Who we owe money to…

Current BillsEating Disorders Awareness, Prevention, and

Education Act of 2003Impact Act, Obesity & Eating Disorder

PreventionHigher Education Act of 1965   Public Health Initiative on Diabetes and

Women's HealthRight Start Act of 2003

Whether we realize it or not, eating disorder have a big impact on the economy. Eating disorder, such as obesity, withdrawals a lot of money. Obesity often leads to numerous of diseases, illness, and other fallback of health. The government then address the issue by creating something called the “fat” tax.

The Fat tax is a tax on any kind of fatty food. One of the main goal is to discourage unhealthy diets, so obesity rates may go down.

As we said before, the Fat Tax is a tax on saturated food that exceed 2.3%. Since the tax was passed in Denmark, it left officials in America wondering whether we should acquire the same tax due to obesity. Denmark is not originally obese, however, the whole purpose of the fat tax is to increase the life span of a person by three years. The reason why we should consider it is because obesity caused healthcare around 40 million dollars when 18% of the obesity population grew larger to 25% within 1998-2006. Whether you are healthy or not, the fat tax may impact on you too. Due to obesity, an individual may spend an extra 150 dollars a year on health insurance. The money that will be taken from the tax was never specified, however, it would  be better idea if the tax money would go into making healthier food cheaper, because it would really target their goal in having a more of a healthy society. However, people raises question if the fat tax was to passed because they wonder if we are being force into eating healthy? People feel like they can make their own decisions/choices and the don't want to be force because political officials says otherwise. What is interesting is that Bloomberg actually wanted to impose the Fat tax on city residents (NY), however he couldn't do so. Since he could not do that, instead he wanted to add a tax on sugary drinks.

Quotes: "He pointed out that where his kids live there’s skim milk and diet cokes and not billboards

pushing soft drinks and yet you go 20 blocks and the obesity…One-third of our kids in school are overweight and obese. It’s the single significant public health issue in the country that’s getting worse everything else is getting better."

"If they passed a sugar tax for New York City only, I would prefer that than to have no sugar tax," Bloomberg told the DN editorial board. "I would prefer a statewide one."

"The city cannot change any taxes without Albany's approval, with the exception of the property tax. Period. End of story."

A person who suffers from eating disorders often needs to be treated the right and appropriate way. The US have very few free treatment centers available for those who cannot afford these centers.

The funding for these organizations are often limited.

Illness Prevalence NIH Research Funds (2005)

Current Legislation  Historically, there was not any legislation activity on eating

disorder. It was up until 1987 where Congress introduced a bill in addressing the Eating Disorder Awareness Week. There has been around 17 bills introduced about the harm of eating disorder, however, it was until the summed up all previous bills into two smaller bills.

Information and Education: An idea introduced by Representative Schroeder in 1993 that requires programs and facilities to provide information on the issue of eating disorder and its treatment. This bill was partially introduced within the following reports: The Department of Labor Health and Human Services Education Appropriation Bill

Awareness Week/Day: This is the awareness of eating disorder legislative have done to address the issue.

Lack of Government Funding Today, eating disorders have a few resources to address it,

such as the National Institute for Health (NIH). The national government does not operate an organization

specifically for eating disorder. For example: There are approximately 900,000 people living with HIV Infection, and

320,282 people who are tested positive for AIDS. In total, that’s going to be around 1.2 million people. The funding research is up to 1.3 billion dollars.

Now let’s take a look at eating disorder. Today, there are approximately 24 million people (and maybe more) suffering from eating disorder today. Yet, the NIH distributes very few funding in comparison.

Why?Until recently, there were no central groups surrounding this issue and no one really advocated it. No one was also educated in this disorder, so the level of funding eating disorder should receive lacked.

Why does the government borrow?

to meet costs of crisis situations like warspay for large-scale projects that are too

expensive to pay for with the current incomepay off budget deficits

Demand-side Economics/ Keynesian Economics: the government must borrow to support increased spending that will encourage employment and eventually higher tax revenues.

Supply-side Economics/ Reaganomics: tax cuts will increase supplies of money to private hands and stimulate the economy.

Ideologies:

Sources “Deficit tops $1 trillion again”. Sahadi, Jeanne. CNN Money. 17 October 2011. CNN.

CNN Money. November 29, 2011. <http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/15/news/economy/treasury_fy2010_ deficit/index.htm?hpt=T2>

“If a fat tax is coming, here’s how to make it efficient, effective: ISU economists”. Iowa State University News. 2 December 2011. Iowa State University of Science and Technology. 3 December 2011. <http://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2011/dec/beghinjensen>

McClenaghan, William A. Magruder’s American Government. New Jersey. Pearson Education, Inc.. 2006.

McClenaghan, William A. Magruder’s American Government. New Jersey. Pearson Education, Inc.. 2006.

“Pie Chart of Who Holds US Debt — The Highest Isn’t China”. 15 September 2011. Citizen CEO. Citizen CEO. 5 December 2011. <http://www.citizenceo.com/federal-budget/graph-of-who-holds-us-debt>

“Statistics:Eating Disorders and Their Precursors”. 2005. National Eating Disorders Association. 3 December 2011. <http://www.sc.edu/healthycarolina/pdf/facstaffstu/eatingdisorders/ EatingDisorderStatistics.pdf>

United States. The Constitution of the United States. 30 November 2011. “The US Debt Ceiling Crisis and Economic Impact”. Jeffries, Janelle. 22 July 2011.

Gather politics. Gather, Inc. 5 December 2011. http://politics.gather.com/viewArticle.action? articleId=281474979701584

“US nears debt ceiling deadline”. 10 June 2011. London Stock Exchange. London Stock Exchange. 5 December 2011. http://www.londonstockexchange.com/news/focus-on/039-us-nears-debt-ceiling-deadline.htm

“Eating Disorders 101 Guide: A Summary of Issues, Statistics and Resources”. The Eating Disorders Coalition for

Research, Policy and Action. RENFREW. 2001. 5 December 2011. <http://www.renfrewcenter.com/uploads/ resources/1067338472_1.doc >