How Washington spends your tax money

[MillCreek]

http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/11/pf/taxes/how-federal-income-taxes-are-spent/index.html?hpt=hp_t3


From the article:

 Here's what that all means in dollars-and-cents spending for someone who paid $15,000 in federal income taxes for 2013:

    Military: $4,064.34
    Health: $3,409.19
    Interest on the debt: $2,080.26
    Unemployment and Labor: $1,468.10
    Veterans benefits: $758.00
    Food and Agriculture: $756.88
    Government: $682.39
    Housing and community: $598.84
    Education: $304.69
    Energy and Environment: $278.17
    International Affairs: $226
    Transportation: $204.03
    Science: $168.11

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Hmm? 

That seems a bit misleading.  Health and Human Services and the Social Security Admin both cost us more than DoD, yet they list military as the biggest expense.

[makattak]

http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/11/pf/taxes/how-federal-income-taxes-are-spent/index.html?hpt=hp_t3


From the article:

 Here's what that all means in dollars-and-cents spending for someone who paid $15,000 in federal income taxes for 2013:

    Military: $4,064.34
    Health: $3,409.19
    Interest on the debt: $2,080.26
    Unemployment and Labor: $1,468.10
    Veterans benefits: $758.00
    Food and Agriculture: $756.88
    Government: $682.39
    Housing and community: $598.84
    Education: $304.69
    Energy and Environment: $278.17
    International Affairs: $226
    Transportation: $204.03
    Science: $168.11

Broadly speaking, for every dollar you pay in federal income taxes, about half goes to military spending (27%) and spending on federal health programs (22.7%). The latter covers everything from Medicare and Medicaid to the Children's Health Insurance Program.

That's a damned lie.


Or, rather, it's a stupid reporter who doesn't understand how the federal government works. IFF (that's not a typo) the government were spending only what it brought in in taxes, then the above statement would be correct. (I rather guessed the numbers you posted weren't going to work out correctly.)

So, it would look more like this:

Here's what that all means in dollars-and-cents spending for someone who paid $15,000 in federal income taxes for 2013:

    Military: $4998
    Health: $4193
    Interest on the debt: $2558
    Unemployment and Labor: $1806
    Veterans benefits: $932
    Food and Agriculture: $931
    Government: $839
    Housing and community: $737
    Education: $375
    Energy and Environment: $l342
    International Affairs: $278
    Transportation: $251
    Science: $207

Because the Federal government, in 2013, spent 18,450 for every $15,000 taken in taxes.

[makattak]

Hmm? 

That seems a bit misleading.  Health and Human Services and the Social Security Admin both cost us more than DoD, yet they list military as the biggest expense.

I do notice that Social Security doesn't seem to be represented... funny how they broke down the numbers to avoid that. I was caught up with the misleading faulty math.

[makattak]

So any guesses as to where they put Social Security Spending to hide it?

[MillCreek]

So any guesses as to where they put Social Security Spending to hide it?

As the article says:

Note: The National Priorities Project's calculations exclude payroll taxes. Payroll taxes fully pay for Social Security benefits. But they only cover a portion of Medicare's expenses -- the remainder is covered by general federal revenue and premiums.

Social security is paid for by FICA taxes, and this article details spending from income taxes.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Huh.  So they did it on purpose.

It's not just misleading, it's deliberately misleading.

[KD5NRH]

That seems a bit misleading.  Health and Human Services and the Social Security Admin both cost us more than DoD, yet they list military as the biggest expense.

They can also gently nudge any other subset  of another category that benefits the military into military spending.  i.e. education expenses (Which category do you think the various service academies ended up in?) or science.  (Because nobody else ever benefits from research done or funded by the military, of course.)

[HankB]

   
    Military: $4,064.34    DOD 2013 Budget: 672.9 billion
    Health: $3,409.19     HHS 2013 Budget:  940.9 billion

Right off the bat, the numbers don't add up.

[KD5NRH]

Right off the bat, the numbers don't add up.

Try it with Common Core math.

[Scout26]

What I should pay/am willing to pay for:

    Military: $4,064.34
    Veterans benefits: $758.00
    Food and Agriculture: $756.88  (I'm willing to keep the  inspection Service, but the rest can go away)
    Energy and Environment: $278.17 (Conservation, yes; Energy boondoggles, no)
    International Affairs: $226  (Embassies, yes; Foreign Aid, no)
    Transportation: $204.03 (quality roads paid for with fuel taxes, yes; High speed rail and other bullhockey, no)

New tax bill $6287.08 (much less more likely)  Leaves $8712.92 to pay off the debt (not just service it) and/or reduce taxes.

[charby]

Right off the bat, the numbers don't add up.

Some of health comes out of FICA

[MechAg94]

If they are not including all federal taxes, it will always be a misleading shell game. 

[Tallpine]

If they are not including all federal taxes, it will always be a misleading shell game. 

Yeah - if FICA ain't a tax, then I'm King of Londinium and wear a shiny hat 

[HankB]

Some of health comes out of FICA

The data sheet I saw listed the 2013 SSA budget (882.7 billion) separately from HHS's own 940.9 billion budget.

[birdman]

The data sheet I saw listed the 2013 SSA budget (882.7 billion) separately from HHS's own 940.9 billion budget.

Also, FICA (Medicare) is separate, the HHS part is funds required beyond what SSA and FICA require, plus Medicaid.

[Ned Hamford]

Try it with Common Core math.

 

[Balog]

If they are not including all federal taxes, it will always be a misleading shell game. 

Federal income taxes are super low since we created 15 different specific taxes that get taken from you exactly like income taxes that we don't have to account for. All your "income tax" pays for is the royal Presidential dog walker. Look how low your taxes are though!