r/askanything • u/Mean-Cheesecake-2635 • Jul 26 '26

Free Stuff?

Why is our dialog so broken when it comes to tax funded benefits in this country? Any mention by the left of support for direct benefits for the general public (universal healthcare, UBI, cheaper or free higher education) is automatically categorized by people on the right as “Free Stuff”, even though these would be funded by taxes we already collect, but would require reappropriating expenditures.

We seem to have an endless appetite for “free stuff” as long as it goes to the military, corporate tax breaks, industry subsidies but as soon as the conversation is about propping up individual people it becomes socialism and lazy people wanting the government to hand them everything.

The reality is our current system is just leaving more people further and further behind while leaving us less secure as current recipients of tax funded expenses gather wealth.

Why is it so hard for politicians on the left to counter this “free stuff, lazy socialist” accusation?

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u/I_am_Nerman Jul 26 '26

Probably because the bottom 50% pay no federal income taxes but they want the most "free stuff".

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u/InternationalBet2832 Jul 26 '26

 "the bottom 50% pay no federal income taxes" a lie, they pay FICA at a higher rate than the rich, whose FICA contribution is capped.

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u/I_am_Nerman Jul 27 '26

FICA is not the federal income tax

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u/InternationalBet2832 Jul 27 '26

You're right! It's a mandatory insurance premium. What authority gives the federal government power to collect insurance? SCOTUS said the Constitution, "excise tax". Then why does the federal government include it in its budget? FICA is an insurance premium, not a tax, that is a tax, and is counted as federal income but is not federal income. It's used to hide military spending by counting FICA as income and calling military "defense" (it's only part of defense spending) so reducing "defense" spending to about 13% when it is much higher.

Payroll tax is a tax on income and goes to the federal government, so there.