[The following is brought to your courtesy of the War Resisters League;
they have a snazzy flier that graphically illustrates the information
below, but I couldn't get it to scan properly, so I made a text version of
it. Feel free to visit the WRL page for more information.]
WHERE YOUR INCOME TAX MONEY REALLY GOES
The United States Federal Budget for Fiscal Year 1999
Federal Funds Total $1,295 Billion
| 30% Human Resources ($289 Billion) | 26% Past Military
($336 Billion) |
| 23% Current Military ($299
Billion) | 15% General Government ($194 Billion) |
| 6% Physical Resources ($77 Billion) |
- Human Resources: Education, Health and Human Services, HUD
housing subsidies, Food Stamps, Labor Department
- Past Military:
Veterans' Benefits ($43B); Interest on the National Debt (80% estimated to
be created by military spending, $293B)
- Current Military:
Military Personnel ($71B), Retired Pay ($16B), Operation and Maintenance
($93B), Family Housing ($4B), Procurement ($45B), Research and Development
($36B), Construction ($5B), DoE Nuclear Weapons ($12B), NASA 50% ($7B),
Coast Guard ($4B), International Security Assistance ($6B)
- General
Government: Government, Justice Department, International Affairs,
Peace Corps, 20% interest on national debt, civilian portion of NASA
- Physical Resources: Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, HUD
administration/community development, Interior Department, Transportation,
Environmental Protection
HOW THESE FIGURES WERE DETERMINED
War Resisters League creates this leaflet each year after the President
has presented the budget. Our figures are from a line-by-line analysis in
the Analytical Perspectives book of the Budget of the United States
Government, Fiscal Year 1999.
The percentages are federal funds, which do not include trust funds (such
as Social Security), which are raised and spent separately from income
taxes. What you pay (or don't pay) on April 15 goes only to the federal
funds portion of the budget. The government practice of combining trust
and federal funds (the so-called "Unified Budget") began in the 1960s with
the Vietnam War. The government presentation makes the human needs portion
of the budget seem larger and the military portion smaller.
"Current military" spending adds together money allocated for the
Department of Defense ($254 billion) plus the "defense" portion from
other parts of the budget. Spending on nuclear weapons (without their
delivery systems) amounts to about 1% of the total budget.
"Past military" is represented by veterans' benefits plus 80% of the
interest on the national debt. Analysts differ on how much of the debt
stems from the military; other groups use from 50% to 60%. We use the 80%
figure because we believe if there had been no military spending most (if
not all) of the national debt would have been eliminated. The government
has always found money for war; excessive military spending in the 1980s
dramatically increased the debt.
THE GOVERNMENT DECEPTION
[This false budget, which is the official one put forth by the government
and media, includes Trust Funds like Social Security in the budget and
conceals past military spending in nonmilitary parts of the pie. This has
been going on since around 1965, paralleling the arms buildup accompanying
the Vietnam War.]
- Direct payments for individuals: 50%
- Military: 15%
- Grants to states and localities: 15%
- Interest on the Federal debt: 14%
- Other: 6%
WAR RESISTERS
LEAGUE
339 Lafayette Street
New York, NY 10012