More than half of our income taxes this year will go to the military. The charts below (click for larger versions) show how our income tax dollars were spent in the year just completed — FY2009 — which ended last September 30 (data from Budget of the United States Government: Historical Tables Fiscal Year 2011, Table 8.7). The government sent $657 billion or 53.1% of all discretionary funds to the military. This represents an average of about $5,615 from each of the 117 million households in the US. In the current year (FY2010), the government estimates that $714 billion will be spent on the military. This is more than twice as much as the $295 billion spent in FY2000 (73% more when adjusted for inflation). Despite these gigantic past increases, President Obama’s budget calls for further increasing the military budget in FY2011 to $744 billion.
These charts show the “discretionary” part of the federal budget — that is, the part that Congress and the President directly allocate each year (with the funds derived from our income taxes, corporation taxes, excise taxes, estate and gift taxes, and other miscellaneous taxes). Is this a great country, or what?
Apparently there are people that think that kind of spending on the military is what makes this country great. It's too bad too few of the actual population know about this or other ways that our government manages our money. Thanks for sharing!
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