Where Your Tax Dollars Go

Ever wonder where the money you pay to Uncle Sam goes? 

This site — the National Priorities Project — breask it down by category:

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click for larger chart

Tax_spending

Of the $100000.00 you paid in taxes:

$29968.20 goes to the military
$18602.90 goes to pay the interest on the debt
$20273.80 goes to health care
$6581.60 goes to income security
$3670.10 goes to education
$3437.60 goes to benefits for veterans
$2688.70 goes to nutrition spending
$2143.70 goes to housing
$1724.70 goes to environmental protection
$937.00 goes to job training
$10515.00 goes to all other expenses

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Source:
National Priorities Project
http://nationalpriorities.org/auxiliary/interactivetaxchart/taxchart.html

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What's been said:

Discussions found on the web:
  1. Ironman commented on Oct 19

    Dare I ask what “income security” might be? Does it include Social Security, unemployment insurance, or what?

  2. Patrick (G) commented on Oct 19

    Is Income Security a euphemism for Social Security, and
    ‘Nutrition’ a euphemism for Farm subsidies ?

  3. gmilburn commented on Oct 19

    “Income Security ($112.3 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 ($36.4 billion) which provides cash assistance to disabled, elderly and blind who have very low incomes; payments where Earned Income Tax Credit exceeds tax liability ($33.1 billion); Temporary Assistance for Needy Families ($17.7 billion); payments where child credit
    exceeds tax liability ($8.9 billion); foster care and adoption assistance ($6.3 billion); child care spending and a variety of other small programs for children and families.”

    “Nutrition ($45.9 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.”

    Found at http://natprior.org/auxiliary/somePdfs/taxday2005sources.pdf

  4. David commented on Oct 19

    In reading the info at :

    Found at http://natprior.org/auxiliary/somePdfs/taxday2005sources.pdf

    I don’t see any mention of social security spending at all in the break-downs. In fact the explanation is contained in the leading paragraph:

    “Your income taxes go towards the Federal funds budget, so this is the budget that has been broken down for the chart on page 1 of ‘Where Do Your Tax Dollars Go?’ The total federal government budget includes the Federal funds and the trust funds budgets. Trust funds include Social Security, Railroad Retirement, and others.”

    As such, Social Security is not a part of this break-down as it is not directly funded with income taxes. I suspect that it indirectly funded (and increasingly so) through the very large slice called “Interest on the Debt.”

  5. Thijs commented on Oct 19

    Hahaha 30% to Military and Defence. It is obvious who is in control in Washington :)

  6. Algernon commented on Oct 19

    It is only a slight exxageration to say that the whole pie should carry the label “down a rat hole.” An exxageration because if you spend as much money as the Federal gov’t you’re bound to occasionally do some good.

  7. Orange commented on Dec 7

    How much goes to space exploration in that pie chart?

  8. Joni commented on Apr 14

    Wow! So little for education, the slice that potentially offers the greatest return?

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