How Tax Dollars Are Spent

Yahoo Finance has an article describing how our tax dollars are spent. One interesting thing is that around 70% of the budget is required spending — Congress and the President don’t have any choice about it. This includes Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid payments and other help for individuals. It also includes interest payments on the national debt which, at 10%, seems like a huge liability.

The full breakdown is: * Social Security: 21% * Miliarty: 20% * Aid to the needy: 16% * Medicare: 15% * Interest on the national debt: 10% * Health & Education: 4% * Civilian & Military Retirements: 4% * Veteran’s Benefits: 3% * Transportation: 3% * Other: 6%

I guess that spending 102% of our tax dollars is how Congress got us such a large national debt in the first place.