Where Your Income Tax Money Really Goes
THE PERMANENT WAR ECONOMY
While local governments cut teachers, firefighters, senior centers and other essential services, military contractors are laughing all the way to the bank. This year was the 50th anniversary of former President and General Dwight D. Eisenhower's prophetic warning:
We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.
Today, Congress is part of that complex, with money and staff flowing back and forth between Congressional offices and corporations.
How These Figures Were Determined
"Current military" includes Dept. of Defense ($707 billion) and the military portion from other departments as noted in current military box above ($162 billion). "Past military" represents veterans’ benefits plus 80% of the interest on the debt.* For further explanation, please go to: http://www.warresisters.org/.
These figures are from an analysis of detailed tables in the Analytical Perspectives book of the Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2012. The figures are federal funds, which do not include trust funds — such as Social Security — that are raised and spent separately from income taxes. What you pay (or don’t pay) by April 18, 2011, goes to the federal funds portion of the budget. The government practice of combining Trust and Federal funds began during the Vietnam War, thus making the human needs portion of the budget seem larger and the military portion smaller.
