where does your tax money go?

strollingbones

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Sep 19, 2008
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This year, the Federal government will spend more than $2.5 trillion—an amount almost impossible to grasp. If you do the math, this number translates into $6.8 billion a day, or $4.72 million a minute and $8454 for each man, woman and child in the country.So what do we get for our money?

Nearly three-quarters of the federal budget goes to four areas: the military, health-care benefits, interest on the national debt and Social Security. The rest goes to various social-aid programs, including education grants, scientific research, the arts, support for small businesses, foreign aid and running the government. The military. Including estimates for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we will spend $527 billion on military expenses this year. In fact, the U.S. spends as much money on its military as all other nations combined. About $5 billion goes for military assistance to foreign governments, including $2.2 billion for Israel and $1.3 billion for Egypt. Intelligence spending—also part of the military budget—is classified, but GlobalSecurity.org, an intelligence policy think tank, estimates that the year’s expenses for spying and other intelligence-gathering will be more than $40 billion. About $34 billion goes to the Department of Defense, including $7 billion for the National Security Agency and $7 billion for the National Reconnaissance Office, which builds and maintains spy satellites. An additional $5 billion goes to the CIA. (Among other intelligence-gathering agencies, the FBI receives $5.2 billion, and the Department of Homeland Security accounts for about $33 billion.) U.S. military spending also includes $2.5 million to remove unexploded bombs dropped over Laos during the Vietnam War, $400 million to train and equip the Afghan National Army and more than $600 million on Army recruitment advertising. Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare benefits for 40 million elderly and disabled patients and Medicaid assistance for 46 million low-income, disabled and elderly patients will total $521 billion. Social Security. This popular but controversial program, created in 1935 to help provide a financial safety net for all Americans 65 and over, is paid from payroll taxes on those still working. This year’s payment, to 47 million recipients, will total $519 billion. National debt. If you spend more than you earn, you have to make up the difference by borrowing. The U.S. currently has a total debt of $7.7 trillion—more than $25,000 per person. Just like individuals, the government has to make regular payments on the debt, which include interest. Interest payments this year will total at least $321 billion, or an average of $90 a month, or $1085 for every American. The debt has increased dramatically in the last three years. Revenues have gone down 5.6% while spending has gone up 23%, building an enormous debt for future generations to deal with. Other social-aid programs. Beyond the huge outlay for Medicare and Medicaid, there are other social programs that total about $200 billion.Unemployment trust fund benefits add up to $40 billion; the Food Stamp Program, $34 billion; Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for 6.9 million aged, blind and disabled Americans, $42 billion; medical services for veterans, $27 billion; and the Housing Certificate Fund for low-income households, $20 billion. Three major education programs provide grants to: local school districts to help educationally deprived students ($12.7 billion); Pell grants to help needy students attend college ($12.4 billion); and grants to school districts to aid students with disabilities ($10.6 billion). And did you know... Within larger departments are a vast array of diverse and interesting programs. These include a reward of $25 million or more for the arrest of Osama bin Laden; $48 million for the IceCube Neutrino Observatory (under the ice at the South Pole); $5 million for bed space for illegal aliens awaiting deportation; $1 million for the Cook County, Ill., Cold Case Homicide Unit, which has reopened 100 cases, with 25 convictions; $1.45 million for rhinoceros and tiger conservation; $496,000 to transfer the Presidential materials of Richard Nixon from Washington, D.C., to the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, Calif.; and $500,000 for the Audubon at Home program to help homeowners make their backyards more wildlife-friendly. Oh, yes, one more way the government uses our tax dollars—the annual operating expense of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS): $10.3 billion.

Where Does Your Tax Money Go | Parade.com
 
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My tax money gets funneled through several third party offshore 'cut out' banking accounts, and ends up in the campaign funds of people I would never vote for.
 
good question...I mean none of us know exactly what the dollars we provide via tax do, exactly, we just know what goes on around us and were ostensibly its used.

I'd love to trace it and maybe, better yet, we could just take the mystery out of it,how about the gov. issue me a person, an indigent po' person, I will clothe feed and provide a roof over their head, they will work for me, in exchange, and I don't pay any federal tax, let me give it directly to the 'people'...:eusa_think:
 
I don't usually pick the shit off flies, and I sure don't have control over exactly where my tax payments get spent or by whom. And it may sound sadistic or just plain stupid but I'm very proud to pay taxes even though I don't like it.

Contrary to what others may say or think, I happen to like it here.
 

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