Download Quiz: Homework 15

Homework 15
1. A ____________________ is a tax system which has higher tax rates on people with lower
incomes.
A. regressive tax
B. progressive tax
C. flat tax
D. a value added tax
Answer: A
2. The ________________ is calculated by taking the total tax payment, divided by total income.
A. the value added tax rate
B. the marginal tax rate
C. the alternative minimum tax rate
D. the average tax rate
Answer: D
3. Which of the following best reflects a flat tax system?
A. It's a tax system which has lower tax rates on people with higher incomes.
B. It's a tax system which has higher tax rates on people with lower incomes.
C. It's a tax system which has a constant tax rate.
D. It's a tax system which has higher tax rates on people with higher incomes.
Answer: C
4. Approximately how much money, per person, did the U.S. federal government take in per person in
the U.S.?
A. $16,000
B. $800
C. $24,000
D. $8,000
Answer: D
5. Which of the following account for more than 90 percent of the revenue the U.S. federal government
collects?
A. custom duties, excise taxes, and corporate income tax
B. the individual income tax, the corporate income tax, and Social Security and Medicare taxes
C. the individual income tax, the excise tax, and Social Security and Medicare taxes
D. the individual income tax, the corporate income tax, and custom duties
Answer: B
6. Approximately how much money was paid in Social Security benefits in 2007?
A. $586 billion
B. $2.4 trillion
C. $50 billion
D. $2.7 trillion
Answer: A
7. Between 1940 and 2009, what time period had the highest Debt as a percentage of GDP for the
U.S.?
A. 1941-1950
B. 1991-2000
C. 1981-1990
D. 1951-1960
Answer: A
8. Of the following, which is the smallest share of total federal tax receipts collected, according to 2007
U.S. data?
A. Social Security and Medicare taxes
B. individual income tax
C. custom duties
D. corporate income tax
Answer: C
9. How do marginal tax rates today compare to marginal tax rates in the past?
A. Marginal tax rates today are lower and flatter than they have been in the past.
B. Marginal tax rates today approximately equal to what they have been in the past.
C. Marginal tax rates today exactly equal to what they have been in the past.
D. Marginal tax rates today are higher and flatter than they have been in the past.
Answer: A
10. The annual difference between federal spending and revenues is referred to as
A. the net credit.
B. the excess.
C. the muni balance.
D. the deficit.
Answer: D
11. According to 2007 data, what does the U.S. Federal Government spend the most on, of the
following?
A. defense
B. medicaid
C. medicare
D. unemployment assistance
Answer: A
12. According to 2007 data, what does the U.S. Federal Government spend the least on, of the
following?
A. medicare
B. defense
C. unemployment assistance
D. medicaid
Answer: C
13. What share of total federal tax revenue is collected from the bottom 20% of income earners?
A. 0.8%
B. 9.3%
C. 4.1%
D. 16.9%
Answer: A
14. What share of total federal tax revenue is collected from the top 1% of income earners?
A. 27.6%
B. 60.7%
C. 54.7%
D. 43.8%
Answer: A
15. What share of U.S. Federal tax receipts come from individual income tax, according to 2007 data?
A. 45.5%
B. 36.5%
C. 10.8%
D. 1%
Answer: A
16. What share of U.S. Federal tax receipts come from social security and medicare tax, according to
2007 data?
A. 36.5%
B. 45.5%
C. 10.8%
D. 1%
Answer: A
17. As of 2007, approximately how much money was the U.S. government taking in for annual tax
revenue?
A. $14.0 trillion
B. $9.6 trillion
C. $5.8 trillion
D. $2.4 trillion
Answer: D
18. Use Table 16.1 of the text book to fill in the missing values of the following table (numbers are
rounded off in order to add up to 100):
Share of Total
Federal Tax
Revenue
Share of Total
Federal Tax
Revenue
Everyone
100%
Everyone
100%
Bottom 20%
i
Top 80%
iv
Bottom 40%
4.9%
Top 60%
v
Bottom 60%
ii
Top 40%
85.8%
Bottom 80%
iii
Top 20%
vi
A. i = 9.9%; ii = 28.4%; iii = 45.8%; iv = 90.1%; v = 95.1; vi = 54.2%
B. i = 0.8%; ii = 14.2%; iii = 31.1%; iv = 99.2%; v = 95.1%; vi = 68.9%
C. i = 25.5%; ii = 27.4%; iii = 28.9%; iv = 31.2%; v = 69.6%; v = 95.1%; vi = 71.1%
D. None of these answers.
Answer: B
19. Given the following table, which of the following statements is (are) true?
i = The bottom 60% of taxpayers pay less than 25% of federal taxes; ii = The top 80% of
taxpayers pay over 98% of federal taxes; iii = The top 40% of taxpayers pay less than 60% of
federal taxes.
A. Only ii is correct
B. Only i is correct
C. Both i and iii are correct.
D. Both i and ii are correct.
Answer: D
20. In 2007, corporate income taxes comprised about 11 percent of total federal revenue. Use the
following figure to help estimate what fraction of GDP represents corporate income taxes.
A. More than 5% of GDP but less than 10% of GDP.
B. More than 20% of GDP.
C. less than 5% of GDP.
D. More than 10% of GDP but less than 15% of GDP.
Answer: C
21. In the simple land of Rabushka, there is only one tax rate, 20 percent, but workers don't have to
pay tax on the first $10,000 of their income. For every dollar they earn above $10,000, they pay
20 cents on the dollar to the Lord High Mayor of Rabushka. What is the marginal tax rate in
Rabushka if a worker's income is $1,000,000?
A. $198,000
B. 19.8%
C. 20%
D. 10%
Answer: C
22. Complete the following two sentences: More federal government transfers of cash go to the _____
(poor/elderly). More federal government purchases of health care go to the _____ (poor/elderly).
A. elderly; elderly
B. poor; elderly
C. poor; poor
D. elderly; poor
Answer: A
23. According to the following table, which generation gets the best deal from Social Security?
A. Retirees that turn 65 in 2010.
B. Retirees who turned 65 in 1975.
C. Retirees that turn 65 in 2030.
D. Retirees that turn 65 in 2075.
Answer: B
24. There are many ways to slice up the U.S. budget. With this in mind, which of the following
statement is false based on the information in this chapter and the figure below?
A. Most of the federal budget is spent on welfare and foreign aid.
B. More than half of the federal budget goes toward Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and
interest on the debt combined.
C. The federal government spends about $1,830 on the military per person in the United
States.
D. About half of the federal budget goes toward Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security
combined.
Answer: A
25. Pundits and commentators often state (correctly) that entitlement spending (spending on
Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security) will explode in the future. But by lumping all three
together, we obscure the source of the explosion. According to the following figure, which
entitlement spending will not be “exploding” all that much compared to the other two?
A. Medicare and Medicaid.
B. Social Security.
C. Everything else.
D. Foreign aid.
Answer: B
26. Suppose that a government enacts a new payroll tax of 10 percent of worker wages, “paid” 100
percent by employers. What will happen to the typical firm's demand for labor?
A. The demand curve for labor remains unchanged.
B. The demand for labor will decrease.
C. The demand for labor becomes a perfectly vertical line.
D. The demand for labor will increase.
Answer: B
27. Social Security is primarily a pay-as-you-go program, which means that the government pays
retirees their promised benefits by taxing today's workers. Imagine that Social Security moved to a
fully funded program in which today's workers (or the government on their behalf) invest in assets,
such as stocks and bonds, to pay for their own retirement. If this were the case, what would
happen to the U.S. savings rate?
A. None of these answers.
B. The U.S. savings rate would probably increase.
C. The U.S. savings rate would probably decrease.
D. The U.S. savings rate would not change.
Answer: B
28. Fill in the blanks for this problem: Under current law, homeowners get a big tax break: The details
of the tax break really don't matter as much as the mere fact that if you make mortgage payments
on a home that you live in, your taxes will be lower than otherwise. Suppose that Congress passes
a law eliminating the tax break for homeowners. This will cause the demand for homes to
________ and the price of homes to ______.
A. increase; increase
B. decrease; decrease
C. increase; decrease
D. decrease; increase
Answer: B
29. In 2007, 1 percent of federal spending went towards foreign aid. Use the following figure to help
estimate what percent of U.S. GDP went towards foreign aid.
A. more than 3% of GDP but less than 6% of GDP
B. more than 6% of GDP
C. more than 1% of GDP but less than 3% of GDP
D. less than 1% of GDP
Answer: D
30. In 1989, Senator Bob Packwood asked Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation how much extra
revenue the government would raise if it just started taxing 100 percent of all income over
$200,000 per year. The Joint Committee crunched some numbers and reported an answer: $204
billion per year. What is wrong with this answer?
A. Nobody earns more than $200,000 per year in the U.S.
B. Only movie stars make more than $200,000 per year and they do not have to pay income
tax.
C. Most people would stop working once they earned $200,000 per year.
D. The Joint Committee made a mistake with their answer. A more accurate estimate is $20.4
billion per year.
Answer: C