Happy tax day, fellow Illinoisans! Curious where your federal tax dollars go? A couple of think tanks have you covered.
First is the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, which provides succinct data and nice graphs. Defense spending tops the list at 22 percent, followed closely by Social Security (21 percent) and health care (21 percent). We also paid a whooping $237 billion -- 9 percent of the budget -- on interest for our national debt. Education and transportation infrastructure (mostly all on roads, not public transit) each received a scant 2 percent.
The centrist folks at Third Way crunched the same data (pdf), but focused their analysis on what a typical working age household would pay ($13,112 in federal income and payroll taxes). The results aren't too pretty, either. Your average middle class Americans household spent $593.48 on the war in Iraq, an additional $2,008.01 on defense, and $1,085.29 worth of interest on the national debt, which has grown steadily because of President Bush's senseless war and penchant for tax cuts to the wealthy.
On a related note, Rep. Jan Schawkowsky, along with nine other House Democrats, blasted the Bush Administration for their blank check in Iraq this morning. From Schakowsky's remarks:
Americans are sending in their taxes today, and they think their money is going to Washington, but it’s really on its way to Baghdad.
So far, the war in Iraq has cost $ 526 billion—$16,500 for the average family of 4. And there is no end in sight. And if we continue the Bush-McCain policies, the children of today’s taxpayers will be paying the bill, too.
With more and more Americans struggling to make mortgage payments, buy gas, or cover other essential needs, it is shameful that we are spending so much to pay for the failed war in Iraq ...
This tax day, at events around the country we are saying what the American people are saying: the war must end, we must stop sending all of our hard-earned money to Baghdad, and we must start investing here at home.
A few other interesting notes from the studies: Americans forked over $98.80 for agricultural subsidies but only $34.50 for environmental protection and $6.67 for renewable energy research. Those dastardly pork barrel projects only set us back $60.45, as well.
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