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24 Don’t Make Me Say I Told You So

Department says was $984 billion at year-end 2019, it creates a
huge gap between the financial obligations that our government

has and the money available to pay these costs.

To put it in context, let’s say that we have $10,000 in the bank
and we will have to start making payments of $5,000 a month
six months from now. A crisis, years in the making, is about to

show up at our door. There is one obvious solution, and really

the only course of action for the U.S. government – raise taxes.
Our country has “kicked the can down the road” for decades
when it comes to dealing with long-term budget deficits. Now

that the Baby Boomers are retiring, those bills are due and

payable.

How much will taxes go up? What new taxes will there be? That

is, of course, impossible to say, but it will have to be enough to
cover the enormous expenses that are showing up now. A study
by the Tax Policy Center predicted that, to cover the projected

costs of entitlement programs and current deficits, income tax

rates would have to go up significantly. The study says that if all
tax brackets are increased proportionately, today’s lowest rate
of 10% would go to 15%, and the highest rate of 37% would go

to 52%.

Since raising income taxes is unpopular, and politicians are
afraid to mention this issue, they might look to increase revenues

by implementing new taxes. In any case, the percentage of

Chapter 1: The New Retirement