Besides tax, the government has another way of getting the money. It can literally print the money. True, somebody has to eventually pay for it but not explicitly as a form of tax. If you have $100K in the bank and $1M in your 401K, you are paying for it because your money will not be worth that much 5 years, 10 years from now. Printing money creates inflation and inflation robs everyone's savings. That's how they can give out the checks.