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2 Responses to “Friday open thread”

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1. Baklava says:

   February 15, 2008 at 1:25 pm

   What is 56% of the federal budget spent on?

   Excerpt:

   Then there is military spending, swelled these days by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the Pentagon’s share of federal spending — 21% — is probably less than most Americans would guess. It’s higher than in the 1990s, but lower than in 1983 (26%) and 1968 (46%), during the Vietnam War. Our division of the budget pie still hasn’t accounted for even half of total federal spending. So where do the majority of your federal tax dollars go? To your fellow citizens, in direct payments and benefits.

   All of these “transfer payments” combined — for the elderly, civil-service and military retirees and poor people without medical insurance, and for orphans, the unemployed and the disabled — make up about 56% of annual federal spending.

   Another excerpt:

   The vexing problem of reordering national priorities is that 65% of the current federal budget (56% in transfer payments and 9% in interest on debt) is virtually untouchable. Restraining entitlements would require a contentious overhaul of benefit formulas for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Even if the Pentagon’s budget share were cut in half, it would free up only 10% of federal dollars. And the problem will only get trickier as baby-boomers retire and the costs of Social Security and Medicare really soar.

   Given this situation, how can any new programs or spending be added. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton need to address that question. There simply isn’t enough dollars by ending the war. It’ll be a nice slogan that americans without perspective will love to hear but it isn’t “straight talk”.
2. Tregonsee says:

   February 15, 2008 at 2:08 pm

   Just remember this when you see some nitwit picketing the post office on April 15th with signs talking about 50% or more of your taxes going to war. I always tell them how grateful they should be that they have absolutely no idea what they are talking about.

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