You all heard the news: the US government is $36 trillion deep into national debt somehow. To address this, Washington, D.C. officials have now opened an official Venmo account for the US Treasury, allowing you to send them the money directly without the paperwork and bureaucracy typically required for tax payments. You’ll still need to pay those taxes, though.
This exciting new development was announced and specifically set up by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which is a part of the US Department of the Treasury in Washington DC. From here onwards, individuals can now make voluntary contributions to the US Treasury to hopefully reduce the ballooning national debt, which again, has now reached $36.71 trillion.
Funny enough, the process is somewhat less complicated compared to doing your yearly taxes, and the US Treasury has even labeled the process as a “gift” to reduce public debt. Venmo isn’t exactly the only way to contribute, as the official app and website allow for direct bank accounts, PayPal, and even card payments.
Some people did the math, thankfully, and have concluded that each US citizen will need to Venmo around $77,000 to pay off the national debt. However, infants, youth, and senior citizens likely don’t have that much to spare, if at all; so it falls upon the employed population in the US to do the Venmo-ing. In that case, each employed US citizen will need to Venmo around $250,000 to the US Treasury to fully pay off that national debt.
People Would Rather Pay Their Own Debts
As you might have expected, many people are outraged at the concept of “helping” out the US government, as most US citizens also have debts of their own to worry about and would rather set up their own Venmo account to receive donations from others. Some questioned what the taxes were for, and others have explained that the US government spent more than what it earned through taxes.
“What the f*** are taxes then,” asks IAmThePonch
“This is an example of shift the tax burden off the wealthy,” points out waffle299
Hence, the idea about higher taxes for rich people in the US became a common point in the discussion for people who are now aware of the Treasury’s Venmo gift scheme. Some joked that the door is now open for billionaires to gift to the US Treasury, though they likely couldn’t cover all of it, not like they would want to anyway.
“I’ll wait until Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg donate first,” says aquagardener
“And why’d the national debt rise so much? Ah, a massive deficit caused by exempting the rich from taxes. Why not just cut out the middleman and Venmo your money to Jeff Bezos directly? Isn’t this administration all about “efficiency?” Shouldn’t they be pushing people to just mail checks directly to Mark Zuckerberg?” rants FiveDozenWhales
