During the 1930s, I lived temporarily with grandparents on a small farm in Iowa. Grandma had a small tin box that contained her “egg money,” a deposit of coins derived from selling eggs to others. This was her emergency supply of cash used for necessities in 1936.
Surprisingly, I discovered what may be another source of “egg money,” available to aid in the fight to preserve the earned benefits supporting elderly Americans: Tax code loopholes.
$523 billion: Tax deductions, wealthy folks.
$168 billion: International business tax.
$140 billion: Write-offs, meals, entertainment.
$70 billion: Inventory taxes.
$25 billion: Oil, gas tax breaks.
$21 billion: Carried interest.
$11 billion: S-Corporation status loopholes.
$10 billion: Second homes, yachts mortgages.
$ 3 billion: Corporate jets.
$ 3 billion: Derivative traders.
$974 billion: total tax code “egg money.”
One would hope that before the politicians cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid funding, they would consider the largess contained in the tax code egg money tin box and ponder the morality of cutting these earned benefit programs.
(Source: Congressional Budget Office, Joint Tax Committee, Treasury Department, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Seth Hanlon and Mike Ettlinger.)
