Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Taxpayer Contribution To The U.S. Defense Budget

Your Slice Of The Pentagon Budget -- DoD Buzz

In Fiscal 2012 the Defense Department asked for $553 billion in its base budget and $118 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ever wonder how much of that you specifically might have been on the hook for?

The White House on Wednesday unveiled a new “Federal Taxpayer Receipt” tool that lets you plug in the amount you paid in taxes and shows how all of it was distributed across the federal government, from the National Soup Administration to the Bureau of Nuts. At the very top of your “receipt” is the listing “national defense.”

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My Comment: This is the White House take on the budget .... and like all documents and info that comes from the White house .... this one is all political. And while I am not going to debate the national security aspect of the budget .... I have gone through that more than once in the past year .... I am chuckling at their 8.1% share calculation for paying off the interest on the national debt. According to my calculations .... that figure should be much higher.

Update: The White House is asserting that interest payments total 8.1% of tax payments hmmmm .... not so. The US budget is $3.796 trillion for fiscal 2012 .... of which $2.469 trillion is supported with tax receipts .... interest payments on the debt for 2011 (which is lower than what it will be for 2012) is $454 billion. In short .... the real interest payment on the debt is anywhere from 12% (of the budget) to about 18% of tax receipts.

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