Defense Spending Accounted For 37.3 Cents of Every Tax Dollar in 2008
| Wed Apr. 8, 2009 10:51 AM PDT
Even as Defense Secretary Robert Gates initiates an historic review of the Pentagon's budget, recommending that many of the department's big-ticket programs be scrapped after years of mismanagement and bloat, a new report from the National Priorities Project is a useful reminder of just how bad things have gotten. The report breaks down how Washington spent a median-income family's 2008 tax dollars. The results speak for themselves:
As taxes come due on April 15, taxpayers can take stock of how the federal government spent each 2008 income tax dollar: 37.3 cents went towards military-related spending, while environment, energy and science-related projects split 2.8 cents...
37.3 cents for military-related spending breaks down as follows: 29.4 cents for current military and war spending coupled with 7.9 cents for military-related debt. At 3.8 cents of each dollar, veterans' benefits receive similar proportions of a federal tax dollar as housing and community programs and food-related programs.
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Comments
Tax dollars? Or outlays?
Submitted by Douglas McClean (not verified) on Wed Apr. 8, 2009 11:26 AM PDT.
Are these percentages of (a) income tax receipts (as would be indicated by "how the federal government spent each 2008 income tax dollar"), (b) all tax receipts, (c) all receipts, or (d) outlays?
It seems that (d) would be the best way to assess spending, but given the amount of confusion surrounding budget reporting, I wouldn't be entirely surprised to learn that it really is (a) and the percentages sum to something like 200%.
Clarity please.
I seem to remember reading
Submitted by Andy K. (not verified) on Thu Apr. 9, 2009 12:34 PM PDT.
I seem to remember reading somewhere about defense spending in the former Soviet Union-how roughly 1/3 of all government expeditures went into their military, and how this unsustainable drain on public assets bankrupted the nation. This fact is commonly used to explain the demise of the U.S.S.R. . So 37.3%, eh?
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