Just in case every person reading this isn't furious that they're paying taxes to finance windfall profits for huge corporations and their freaky CEOs, at the expense of rivers of blood and exploding debt, here's a breakdown of how your tax dollar is spent:
From National Priorities Project
Quote:
| # Military ($558 billion) includes the function area (referring to government categories) national defense, the sub-function area international military assistance, and Iraq War-related spending in the Executive Office of the President. # Health ($428.5 billion) is the federal funds portion of all health spending by the federal government, including the federal funds spending on Medicare. # Interest on the Debt ($398.6 billion) refers to the interest payments paid on the national debt. The military share of the interest payment is based on the average historical share of national defense spending. Since interest payments are on the debt which has been accumulated over time, the allocation of shares between military and non-military spending takes this into account. # Income Security ($123.5 billion) includes federal funds outlays on the function area income security with the exception of housing assistance, and food and nutrition assistance, which are separately illustrated on the graph. This category includes Supplemental Security Income ($38 billion) which provides cash assistance to disabled, elderly and blind who have very low incomes; payments where Earned Income Tax Credit exceeds tax liability ($34.6 billion); Temporary Assistance for Needy Families ($17.4 billion); payments where child credit exceeds tax liability ($14.6 billion); foster care and adoption assistance ($6.4 billion); child care spending and a variety of other small programs for children and families. # Education ($93.2 billion) includes all federal funds outlays on elementary, secondary, and vocational education, higher education, and research and general education aids, subfunctions defined by the government. # Veterans’ Benefits and Services ($68.9 billion) includes the federal funds portion of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs and any other federal funds spending on the function area veterans’ benefits and services. # Nutrition ($53.9 billion) includes any federal funds outlays classified as food and nutrition assistance, including the Food Stamp program, all child nutrition programs (such as the National School Lunch Program) and others. # Housing ($38.3 billion) includes all federal funds outlays defined by the federal government as housing assistance. # Natural Resources and the Environment ($31.3 billion) includes all spending on the government-defined function area natural resources and the environment. # Job Training ($6 billion) includes the total for training and employment services as defined by the government. # Other ($254.8 billion) includes everything else not listed above and is comprised of the following function and subfunction areas: international affairs outside of international security assistance (included above in military); general science, space and technology; energy; agriculture; commerce and housing credit; transportation; community and regional development; labor and social services outside of training and employment services; justice; general government; and undistributed offsetting receipts |
by Pulitzer Prize winner Tim Weiner for anyone who is curious about this spending black hole.
