In 2025, Congress spent $4.5 trillion, and most of it was spent on tax cuts for the super-wealthy and big corporations.
To pay for all of this, congressional Republicans added trillions to the debt and cut nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid. As a result, 15 million Americans will lose health care, including 500,000 Ohioans.
The middle-class tax cuts President Donald Trump touted in his spending bill were small compared to the cuts they gave the rich. In fact, the middle-class cuts could easily have been fully paid for by raising taxes only slightly on the richest Americans.
Unfortunately, that’s not what Congress did, and it’s part of a dangerous pattern of using debt − and cuts to investments for working people − to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy.
Former U.S. Senator Rob Portman and Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, wrote a very important opinion piece on May 10 about our national debt (“U.S. debt, deficits are a threat we can’t afford to ignore”). The debt is a crisis and requires action.
Imagine what we could do with $1 trillion
Taxpayers will spend over $1 trillion this year on debt-related interest payments.
Imagine what we could do with $1 trillion − cut middle-class taxes, expand health care, build more housing, provide rent relief, increase teacher pay, pave more roads, hire more police officers and firefighters.
Beyond the cost to taxpayers, it is a major national security issue. Foreign adversaries own a lot of our debt, and that puts us in an incredibly vulnerable position.
Finally, it’s also a reckless way to govern, and one of the reasons why Americans are so fed up with their government.
So how do we fix it? Portman and MacGuineas argue we need both spending cuts and more revenue. They’re right.
Congress must go after unnecessary spending and cut programs that waste taxpayer dollars.
In fact, every year, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) produces reports on waste, fraud, and abuse in each federal agency.
Last year, the GAO recommendations that were implemented led to $62.7 billion in new savings for the federal government. The GAO made more than 1,800 recommendations, and I’ve told House leaders we should be voting every day to implement the GAO’s recommendations to save taxpayer dollars.
But even if we pursue every GAO recommendation, it wouldn’t be nearly enough to cover the annual $2 trillion deficit. The fact is, most of the massive spending in recent memory is the tens of trillions spent on tax cuts for the super-wealthy.
Here’s a very brief history of federal tax and revenue policy in America:
During America’s early years, tariffs were the main source of federal revenue. Even then, Americans knew tariffs were a tax on workers and weren’t generating enough revenue. This is true today.
At the turn of the 20th century, the tax system moved from tariffs to a progressive income tax, but it only worked for a while. The Industrial Revolution created enormous wealth at the top and resulted in extreme inequality. That sounds familiar.
The modern income tax was adopted in 1913, and the estate tax in 1917. Initially, these two taxes were applied to the wealthiest Americans, and the vast majority of working Americans were not taxed. This is how we paid for World War I and World War II, and produced the largest middle class in American history. It lasted until the 1980s.
Starting in the 1980s, United States presidents, with help from Congress, spent enormous sums of money on tax cuts for the top one percent of wage earners and big corporations. In the 1970s, the tax rate for top earners was 70%. Today, it is 37%. Corporate tax rates were also cut from 50% to 21%.
Politicians also created loopholes to allow the super-wealthy and big corporations to pay little to no taxes. Working people and the middle class didn’t get this treatment, and continue to pay too much.
We’re going broke
The result: The tax code is no longer progressive, and we’re going broke.
In fact, most of America’s billionaires pay little to no income or payroll taxes − even though these taxes pay for Social Security and Medicare.
For nearly 30 years, Jeff Bezos, who is worth nearly $300 billion, reported a salary of $82,000. It’s low enough that he claimed the Child Tax Credit.
How is this possible?
The tax code allows the super-wealthy to borrow against their enormous wealth − putting millions of dollars into their bank accounts − without paying any federal taxes. Nothing to Social Security. Nothing for Medicare. Nothing to our national defense.
You’re paying more than billionaires like Jeff Bezos
So, whether you’re a Republican, Democrat, or independent, you’re paying more in federal taxes than Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos.
Elon Musk is about to become the world’s first trillionaire. Yet, he has avoided paying any federal income taxes or payroll taxes. His company, Tesla, paid nothing in federal corporate taxes in 2025.
The system is broken, and the fix is to stop spending trillions on tax cuts for the super-wealthy and big corporations.
Congress can either fix the tax code or go completely broke and watch politicians slash critical investments like health care, housing, and education, and witness our democracy continue to crumble. Fixing the tax code will end deficit spending, balance the budget, and allow us to invest in hardworking Americans. As one of the most pragmatic members of Congress, I’m certain this is the fix our country desperately needs.
Working families will do better, the economy will grow, and we’ll be an infinitely more united country. This is the reform that will allow for all other reforms.
U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman, a Democrat, represents Ohio’s 1st Congressional House District and is a former Cincinnati councilman.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: You pay more in federal taxes than Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk | Opinion
Reporting by Greg Landsman, Opinion contributor / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Greg Landsman, Opinion contributor | USA TODAY Network
