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View Full Version : VIDEO: Tax Dollars at War (53% of your tax payments go towards war spending)




randomname
09-29-2012, 03:32 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFeduoDWKj4

Zippyjuan
09-29-2012, 12:27 PM
Not possible. 61% of the budget goes to Social Security, Medicare/ Medicaid, unemployment, and interest on the debt- the "mandatory spending" portion of the budget which does not include any military spending.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_federal_budget


The President's budget request for 2010 totals $3.55 trillion. Percentages in parentheses indicate percentage change compared to 2009. This budget request is broken down by the following expenditures:[9]
Mandatory spending: $2.173 trillion (+14.9%)

$695 billion (+4.9%) – Social Security
$571 billion (+58.6%) – Unemployment/Welfare/Other mandatory spending
$453 billion (+6.6%) – Medicare
$290 billion (+12.0%) – Medicaid
$164 billion (+18.0%) – Interest on National Debt


Discretionary spending: $1.378 trillion (+13.8%)

Working Poor
09-29-2012, 01:03 PM
I don't know if the number the op posted are correct but I would damm sure rather help people with entitlements than spend the tax dollars on war and police state.

MelissaWV
09-29-2012, 01:20 PM
Not possible. 61% of the budget goes to Social Security, Medicare/ Medicaid, unemployment, and interest on the debt- the "mandatory spending" portion of the budget which does not include any military spending.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_federal_budget

I usually agree with you, though if you watch the video you'll understand the figure. You'll understand it's about the 2011 budget, not the 2010, so you are kind of comparing grapes to raisins. Lastly, the video seems to forget that they are talking about the whole budget... which is not wholly funded by tax dollars. Not even close.

Anyhow, the video includes the interest on the debt (again, pretty unfair to include all of it, but he has a bit of a point) because a chunk of that debt is from our repeated involvement in wars. It includes the VA, since that's an ongoing cost. It includes the discretionary funds that tend to go towards military spending.

HOLLYWOOD
09-29-2012, 01:27 PM
Social Security and Medicare are taxed separately from everyone's paychecks into those specific accounts... also the US government has separated direct military spending/costs, like Military Retirements and Medical/Health under the 'Department of Veteran Affairs', those costs come out of each current budget fiscal year. This year's cost alone is projected to be over $125 Billion, so tack that onto the DOD budget and against the revenue coming in.

The Egyptian/Libya/Yemen/Syrian war ops were revealed by Congressman Brad Sherman during the Kucinich No Libya War Bill, that billions were funneled secretively through DHS. So there's also a portion their budget for war. Then you have the Department of Energy that funds all the NUKE weapon development, military nuke power plants, and handling of expent fuel and refurbishment. SO add that to the military spending. Then you have the Department of State, which is Money Laundering front for the Military/Surveillance/Political Industrial Complexes in foreign nations, so asd that to the Military spending annual budget... now you understand how much is related to the DOD/Military Budgets.


Not possible. 61% of the budget goes to Social Security, Medicare/ Medicaid, unemployment, and interest on the debt- the "mandatory spending" portion of the budget which does not include any military spending.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_federal_budget

Zippyjuan
09-29-2012, 06:39 PM
I did consider those but in the video they do say it is out of $3 trillion in total spending so they seem to be including Social Security, et al.

I didn't post a link to the 2011 since Wiki doesn't break it down like the 2010 one. Proposed spending for the 2011 budget was $3.8 trillion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_United_States_federal_budget

One pie chart for 2011:
http://www.k12opensourceclassroom.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/funding.jpg
http://www.k12opensourceclassroom.org/?p=800

The video claims a figure of $1.6 trillion going to military related spending in 2011. According to this site http://nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spending/

the 2011 budget was $3.73 trillion and 31% went into "discressionary spending". That would come out to $1.16 trillion. It also indicates that interest on the debt was seven percent. That is $261 billion (video claims $400 billion). Take everything in Discressionary Spending plus all of the interest on the debt and you are $200 billion short of what he claims simply goes to military spending. (alternative figures welcomed). Still not adding up.

erowe1
09-29-2012, 06:54 PM
Not possible. 61% of the budget goes to Social Security, Medicare/ Medicaid, unemployment, and interest on the debt- the "mandatory spending" portion of the budget which does not include any military spending.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_federal_budget

Interest on the debt does include debt from previous military spending. The question is, how much of it do you count as military. Some would say all of it. I think the best way would be to count a proportion of it that is equal to the military proportion of the average past budget over the decades that the debt is from.

Carson
09-29-2012, 07:05 PM
You've got to be careful with the numbers they claim to be for the war machine.

Take a look at this chart that shows the devaluation of the dollar.

http://photos.imageevent.com/stokeybob/followthemoney/RobertSahrcurrencyvalue.jpg

See the little bumps when we introduced fake money in with the honest dollar and devalued it in earlier times of war? One way to devalue a dollar by half of its worth would be to double the money supply.

Doesn't it appear that is nearly the amount we used to counterfeit to get our way? How would that look in a budget?

What are these numbers for war they have not been able to trim out and hide other places? It could conceivably be a sum of 120% of every dollar there is in a year.

Every dollar there is everywhere. ?????


So much of what they do is a war on someone somewhere. A lot of it right here at home. No Constitutional business anywhere else.


P.S. I also noticed it was taking us about twenty years to retire the counterfeit in earlier times of war to restore the value of the dollar. That took hard work I imagine. It looks like we have a hard task ahead no matter how it is done. But it must be done to be able to get back to work for the sake of working for each other. It can't all keep going to keeping a another man down.

Someone once said it seemed like one man holding another one down in the gutter seemed like a waste of two good men.

Had to be Will Rogers or Samuel Clemens.

Zippyjuan
10-01-2012, 01:55 AM
Interest on the debt does include debt from previous military spending. The question is, how much of it do you count as military. Some would say all of it. I think the best way would be to count a proportion of it that is equal to the military proportion of the average past budget over the decades that the debt is from.
His figures actually count MORE than the entire debt interest (claiming $400 billion of interest on the debt was due to military spending while the actual total interest on the debt was about $200 billion) as well as the entire budget of the rest of government aside from Social Security/ Medicare/ unemployment to be able get to his $1.6 trillion figure for 2011. All of the Education budget, all State Department, all Treasury Department, all the Justice Department etc budgets. Everything. That is the only way to get close to the $1.6 trillion. I would agree that a fair allocation would be roughly the same percent of interest on the debt as the military portion of the overall budget.

Travlyr
10-01-2012, 03:53 AM
Marion Blakely explains in this video how the military industrial complex is good for the economy. Peace through Strength. Never mind all the dead people and the destroyed lives they cause... it is good for our economy... good jobs. Her claim is that the military budget is only 20% of discretionary spending and congress needs to stop hampering the empire, stop sequestration, and fund the Empire. If we don't, then America is going to lose a lot of really good jobs.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL0VTFw3QMc&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL0VTFw3QMc&feature=player_embedded

Zippyjuan
10-01-2012, 09:39 PM
Military and military contracting jobs ARE on a shrinking list of jobs which offer good pay and benefits in this country.

Travlyr
10-02-2012, 03:13 AM
Military and military contracting jobs ARE on a shrinking list of jobs which offer good pay and benefits in this country.
War makes for good jobs.