A perception persists that the federal government spends the bulk of its budget on defense, when in reality less than 16 percent of federal outlays goes to defense. From there, the question would be, where does the rest of the money go? If you look at sending by function, 72 percent goes to a variety of social and economic programs.
The bulk of that "72 percent" is spent on two mandatory programs (social security and medicare). That is also part of mandatory spending and it is funded by the FICA payroll tax. Citizens know upfront that is coming out of their paychecks every pay period. Military is part of discretionary spending and none of those programs have their own specific funding source like social security and medicare. So, with the pool of money that is left over will cover discretionary funding. National defense is the largest piece of that pie. I'm all for funding a strong military but I am not for judging the strength of our military based on a dollar amount.
All federal programs are funded by taxes, which are ultimately paid for by Americans, regardless of their source or structure. The issue here is how the federal government spends they money Americans send it, and the fact remains that less than 16 percent of the overall pie goes to defense.
Social security and Medicare are funded by specific taxes. Everything else is funded by the many other revenue sources. There is a very clear distinction. One should not scratch their head wondering why so much is spent on those two mandated programs especially when they have their own source of income. And what exactly is the argument here? Spend more on the military for the sake of spending more or cut mandatory programs that millions of Americans rely on? And I don't appreciate your first statement. Of course, "all federal programs are funded by taxes." However, not all federal programs have their own source. And that was my point. What is yours?
The US spends more on defense than any other country in the world last time I checked. It spends more than the next 7 countries combined on its national defense. So while it may seems low in proportion to social welfare spending, in comparison to any other country we are spending massive amounts of money... How effectively is that money being used?
The federal government spends four times as much on social and economic programs as it does on national defense.
The asterisk in your chart includes 15 different categories. So, "4 times as much" for 15 times the categories?
Also, social security and medicare are the two largest categories of expenditures. Defense spending is third. So, really it's a small share?
A perception persists that the federal government spends the bulk of its budget on defense, when in reality less than 16 percent of federal outlays goes to defense. From there, the question would be, where does the rest of the money go? If you look at sending by function, 72 percent goes to a variety of social and economic programs.
The bulk of that "72 percent" is spent on two mandatory programs (social security and medicare). That is also part of mandatory spending and it is funded by the FICA payroll tax. Citizens know upfront that is coming out of their paychecks every pay period. Military is part of discretionary spending and none of those programs have their own specific funding source like social security and medicare. So, with the pool of money that is left over will cover discretionary funding. National defense is the largest piece of that pie. I'm all for funding a strong military but I am not for judging the strength of our military based on a dollar amount.
All federal programs are funded by taxes, which are ultimately paid for by Americans, regardless of their source or structure. The issue here is how the federal government spends they money Americans send it, and the fact remains that less than 16 percent of the overall pie goes to defense.
Social security and Medicare are funded by specific taxes. Everything else is funded by the many other revenue sources. There is a very clear distinction. One should not scratch their head wondering why so much is spent on those two mandated programs especially when they have their own source of income. And what exactly is the argument here? Spend more on the military for the sake of spending more or cut mandatory programs that millions of Americans rely on? And I don't appreciate your first statement. Of course, "all federal programs are funded by taxes." However, not all federal programs have their own source. And that was my point. What is yours?
The US spends more on defense than any other country in the world last time I checked. It spends more than the next 7 countries combined on its national defense. So while it may seems low in proportion to social welfare spending, in comparison to any other country we are spending massive amounts of money... How effectively is that money being used?