What Eats Up 53 Cents Of Every Tax Dollar?

[Playinghardball]

You might be surprised

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kFeduoDWKj4

[RegieRocker]

1. Interest and defense. Just guessing.

[Poll_Blind]

2. Damn, you should post that in the DU video section as well. nt

PB

[Firebrand Gary]

3. Thanks for sharing. This is fantastic.

[XemaSab]

4. What is it good for?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d8C4AIFgUg

[teddy51]

5. I don't think that to many here would have to watch the video to know what

the answer to that was. Unless (not going to happen) they seriously cut the Defense Budget we will never get out of the mess we are in. (and by the way I think they should rename it to the Department of Offense).

[valerief]

6. Isn't Defense 60 cents? Or maybe it's 60% of discretionary taxes.

It's petty cash for the very, very wealthy to play with.

[unapatriciated]

7. i'm surprised it's so low

[frazzled]

8. Um, only I think if you're not counting in Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security

I trust the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which in an article updated April 15, 2011 (Policy Basics: Where Do Our Federal Tax Dollars Go?), gives figures on government expenditures for fiscal 2010. There it states:

"Defense and security: In 2010, some 20 percent of the budget, or $705 billion, paid for defense and security-related international activities. The bulk of the spending in this category reflects the underlying costs of the Department of Defense and other security-related activities. The total also includes the cost of supporting operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, which totaled $170 billion in 2010."



I think they're getting their number by comparing defense spending only to other non-mandatory (discretionary) government spending. Which of course doesn't make sense. Here's a WaPo chart of the same tax expenditures for 2010:

[whatchamacallit]

9. Enormous conflict of interest = non-stop murder

The US is a Devil in a white hat.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

10. Funding for Reagan monuments?

:shrug:

[Frustratedlady]

11. If they had invested that in R&D for a replacement for oil,

we wouldn't have needed to go to war. Oil is the real reason, isn't it?

What a waste.

[Prometheus Bound]

12. Education? Health care? Infrastructure renewal?