>>I'll summarize: directly from the Treasury Dept, inflation-adjusted federal tax revenues were $1.48 trillion for the first half of fiscal year 2016 (all-time high), but the feds still ran a $461 billion deficit.

Probably more relevant to record tax take as a % of GDP since there's more to income and costs than inflation. Nothing special about the current tax take by that measure- low if anything.

Also seems to me that it doesn't matter what the tax take is, as long as it covers outgoings. That hasn't been the case in the USA for a long time and current deficits are not large compared to those imposed by the boomers who, like you, didn't want to pay enough tax. As posted earlier, somebody retiring in 2013(?) will suck $185K more out of the public purse than they put in, while somebody born the same day can expect to put in $400K more than they'll ever see back. So, the more determined current taxpayers are not to resolve the deficit, the sooner the young are going to revolt against a system stacked against them by people who refuse to pay their own way. Your daughter you're putting into private school because taxpayers won't fund decent education any more: she's lumbered with those huge debts because generations of taxpayers shrug off their own deficits as if money grows on trees.