Military Spending Gets 40% of Every Income Tax Dollar

[Demeter]

Military Spending Gets 40% of Every Income Tax Dollar

According to a newly released report by the National Priorities Project, in 2006 military spending accounted for 27 cents of every income tax dollar paid. Additionally, NPP determined that nine cents of every federal income tax dollar paid today could be attributed to borrowing to pay for past wars and military build-ups. Finally, disability payments, health care and other benefits accrued to veterans made up a little over three cents of the federal income tax dollar, bringing total military spending up to close to 40 cents of every tax dollar.
posted by Raymond Weber @ 5:22 AM

http://www.economicpolicymonitor.com/

[valerief]

1. I'm sure the Republican Party will work hard to raise that to 70% by 2010. nt

[John Q. Citizen]

2. The Repos and the Dems are in an arms race to see who can be the biggest supporters of the military.

They both think it's what people look at when chosing a party to cast their presidential vote for.

[valerief]

6. By people you mean corporatepeople who send lobbyists to get a piece of that

military pie.

[John Q. Citizen]

9. I mean that there is a perception that appearing strong on defense gets

their guy elected.

Sure there are contractors raking in the dough, and money is the mothers milk of politics. But there is a perception among the ruling elite that it translates into votes purely on a viseal level to be seen as strong on defense.

It reminds me of the war on drugs hysteria a few years back when leaders on both sides tripped over each other trying to be tough on drugs. Bill after bill was introduced in a simular arms race to see who could come off as most punitve, most "anti-drug."

In that case there was alos a small well connected group of business people waiting to cash in on the hysteria, and fueling the hysteria.

[ShortnFiery]

3. This is insane! Let's get Democratic Representatives who promise to LOWER this percentage to 20%nt,

[SharonAnn]

10. Isn't that the percentage of the "Discretionary" Spending? As in non-social Security, non-Medicare,

[Viva_La_Revolution]

4. "past wars and military build-ups"

this tells me they are not including the prices from the current wars, because of course, we are borrowing that from China.

I wonder what the percentage will be in 10 years. :(

[FormerDittoHead]

5. I believe it's higher, much higher than that - like 51% and even higher...

It's not a simple calcuation.

See http://www.warresisters.org/piechart.htm which puts it at 51%.

I think their reasoning is sound, and I also think it's still a low figure...

We have to wake up to the fact that the military dropped the ball on 9/11, and we're just a tad safer now than we were then. 80%+ of the money we spend on the military is a BLACK HOLE, and when you're not buying anything useful, like infrastructure, education, health care, research and development, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Maynard_Keynes">Keynesian economics gets stretched to its breaking point...

[Demeter]

7. I Think The Military Was ORDERED TO Drop the 9/11 Ball

and nothing has ever come out to contradict that suspicion.

[Handsome Pete]

8. One is curious...

as to what percentage of the entire budget the Soviet Union was blowing on defense just before their economy collapsed?

:dilemma:

Always perview before you post!</joke>