Tax and Spend

Tomorrow is tax day leading me to think about where the money we pay in taxes goes. It is interesting that until 2002 the Government Printing Office printed a booklet called “The Citizens Guide to the Federal Budget”. 2002 was the last fiscal year this was published. Still it is interesting:

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/citizensguide.html

In FY 2002 we spent more than $300 billion on national defense, but also over $200 billion on health and $188 billion on interest. Transportation, were lots of the “pork” is found amounted to a paltry $55 billion of a budget of over $2 trillion.

The thing that is missing from all of this. The thing absent is us. That is, you and me. We don’t talk about national priorities anymore. Instead we have been dragged down into the nitty gritty detail that distracts us from the bigger picture. Putting on my tin foil hat I wonder if this is not a part of the plan. I wonder why this concise, easily understood booklet was only published once by the current administration in their first year in office?

I have my own ideas about were we should spend our taxes. The thing is I am not interested in anything specific. I am interested in broad priorities, not specific programs. But we don’t talk about those broad priorities any more. It is as if so much of the $2 trillion is already spoken for that all we can discuss is the loose change. Why is that?

One other interesting part of this publication is the break down of sources of funds the government spends. In FY 2002, 49% came from individual income taxes. Only 10% came from corporate income taxes. I wonder what the 2006 break down looked like?

Tomorrow is tax day. Perhaps a good day to write our represenatives and let them know about our broad priorities. Sure we cannot change things overnight. We all benefit from stability. But if it were my money to spend, I think I might spend it a little differently. I would not necessarally reduce what there is to spend, but might change where it comes from and where it goes.

Imagine if we could choose where our money goes. If you could allocate your taxes to what we thought was important as individuals. Very democratic. I wonder what we would decide?