http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17496.htmMilitary Spending Gets Forty Per Cent of Every Income Tax Dollar
By Pamela Schwartz
04/06/07 "ICH" -- - Northampton, MA -- As taxpayers prepare to meet this year's April 16th tax deadline, they may want to consider that almost 40 cents of every tax dollar is spent on past and present military spending, according to a newly released publication by the National Priorities Project (NPP), a non-profit research organization that examines the local impact of federal spending policies.
In Where Do Your Tax Dollars Go?, NPP offers breakdowns of how the federal government spends the median household's tax payment in each state and over 200 cities. In 2006, according to the National Priorities Project, current military spending accounted for 27 cents of every income tax dollar paid. Additionally, NPP determined that nine cents of every federal income tax dollar paid today could be attributed to borrowing to pay for past wars and military build-ups. Finally, disability payments, health care and other benefits accrued to veterans made up a little over three cents of the federal income tax dollar, bringing total military spending up to close to 40 cents of every tax dollar.
"To look at how the federal government spends our taxes allows us to stare at our federal spending priorities," said Greg Speeter, executive director of the National Priorities Project. "Right now, military spending crushes everything else, and we're not even close to the final price tag on the Iraq War that has already cost us half a trillion dollars." National Priorities Project is also the leading source for the cost of the Iraq War, offering breakdowns of the cost by state and congressional district.
NPP's latest tax day publication shows that spending on preventive security measures, such as diplomacy, economic development assistance and locking down nuclear materials, amounted to three-quarters of a penny.
Investing in renewable energy and conservation received hundredths of a penny of the federal income tax dollar.
Domestic needs such as affordable housing and nutrition claimed two and three cents, respectively. Meanwhile, beyond military spending, the next two largest areas of spending occurred in health at 21 cents of every tax dollar and interest on the debt at 19 cents.
National Priorities Project (NPP) is a 501(c)(3) research organization that analyzes and clarifies federal data so that people can understand and influence how their tax dollars are spent. Located in Northampton, MA, since 1983, NPP focuses on the impact of federal spending and other policies at the national, state, congressional district and local levels. For more information, go to www.nationalpriorities.org
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We can no longer as American citizens allow the continued raping of our country this way. This system is a ruse in order to make defense contractors richer to keep the politicians who lick their boots in power by perpetuating war. I thoroughly believe this is unconstitutional. We the people should have the say as to where OUR money goes, and when our representatives do not put it where it serves the people best, it is time for them to be replaced.
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In the words Of Dwight D. Eisenhower:
"What can the world, or any nation in it, hope for if no turning is found on this dread road?
The worst to be feared and the best to be expected can be simply stated.
The worst is atomic war.
The best would be this: a life of perpetual fear and tension; a burden of arms draining the wealth and the labor of all peoples; a wasting of strength that defies the American system or the Soviet system or any system to achieve true abundance and happiness for the peoples of this earth.
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms is not spending money alone.
It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.
The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities.
It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population.
It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals.
It is some 50 miles of concrete highway.
We pay for a single fighter with a half million bushels of wheat.
We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.
This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking.
This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.
These plain and cruel truths define the peril and point the hope that come with this spring of 1953.
This is one of those times in the affairs of nations when the gravest choices must be made, if there is to be a turning toward a just and lasting peace.
It is a moment that calls upon the governments of the world to speak their intentions with simplicity and with honesty.
It calls upon them to answer the questions that stirs the hearts of all sane men: is there no other way the world may live?"
Dwight D. Eisenhower, "A Chance For Peace" speech, 1953.
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How sad to see that times really have not changed. This is why there will always be be boogeymen.
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