What exactly do our taxes PAY FOR?

[Bouncy Ball]

I just got back from a road trip. There's a stretch of I-35 just south of Waxahachie, Texas (a LONG stretch, 50 miles or more) that has gotten worse and worse and worse for the past few years (coincidence, anyone?) to the point that driving it is really bad on your vehicle. I hit one pothole going 70 that was so bad, I winced and wondered if it did any damage to my car. Loud slamming noise.

It's all rutty, potholed, horribly uneven, downright dangerous. It looks like construction WAS going on (concrete walls along the middle), but nothing has happened on it in well over two years.

So what the HELL do my taxes pay for anymore? My city's public library branches are hurting badly for money. My city's schools are stretched so thin, the teachers are going to have to pay for 75% of the cost of their health insurance next year (used to be the district carried all of it, then less, then less, then less, then less). And that's just ONE thing. Textbooks are falling apart, school buildings are badly in need of repairs that don't get done. And this is a LARGE district. They are cutting arts programs out of the schools for this year and next year.

CHIPs (healthcare program for kids of low-income working parents) has been cut to the bone, thousands of kids thrown off of it.

County hospitals are sucking so bad it's really scary.

I still pay taxes. What the hell are they being used for???

[Reverend_Smitty]

1. Missile defense?

:shrug:

[Bouncy Ball]

2. $3 billion of taxpayer money given to fundie churches

by bush administration just in 2003?

Money paid to journalists to make them push bush policies?

[Reverend_Smitty]

5. Yes clearly our government functions like a well "oiled" machine...

pardon the pun

[Warpy]

17. close

Our taxes go more and more to supporting a bloated military whose purposes are to support arms contractors and to provide muscle for multinational corporations in countries that elect reform governments.

The multinationals, of course, don't pay taxes to support their hired muscle, nor do the scions of the corporate movers and shakers dirty their hands with the whole business.

[strategery blunder]

3. War, war, more war, oh and corporate subsidies

Get with the program.:puke:

[crispini]

4. Well, you live in Dallas county, right?

Here's one place your money is going that you may not have thought about. A big chunk of your county taxes (40%) goes to Parkland. A lot of this pays for the health care of the uninsured for SEVEN COUNTIES around Dallas county. Surprise! You paid, among other things, SIX MILLION DOLLARS in 2003 for care of the unisured who live in Collin county.

BUT, we've got a bill in the lege to take care of this:
http://practicalactivist.blogspot.com/2005/03/poed-about-parkland.html

Call your reps today and tell them to support this bill! :7

[Bouncy Ball]

6. So why isn't Collin County

chipping in? Where is their hospital to take care of these patients?

And yes, I'm in Dallas County.

[crispini]

7. They don't have one.

And in Collin county, you have to earn less than THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR to be eligible for help with your health care. Ain't that sweet.

So they just hop in their cars and come to Parkland. That's why Collin County's tax rate is HALF of ours. Collin County, BTW, is the fourth most Republican county in the nation. Whee!

Call your Texas state senators and reps and tell them to support Senate Bill 230 / House Bill 930. I'm pushing this bill everywhere I go. Tell everyone you know who lives in Dallas county.

[tx_dem41]

8. Thanks for the post Crispin.

We have to stop those freeloadin' Republican suburbanites! I would hope that our Democratic suburbanite colleagues would put pressure on their local legislators as well.

[GettysbergII]

9. You damn communists! You're tax dollars go right where they belong...

....to subsidize huge international corporations in their patriotic duty to finish 'piratizing' what's left of the American economy and 'third-worldizing' the American family. So shut up and bend over.

[Bouncy Ball]

20. LOL

Actually, too true to laugh.

[Toucano]

10. Guns, bullets, inoperable missile defense systems.

You own it all, baby!

[LiberalEsto]

11. Taxes pay for * to hold "public" town meetings

on his pet issues, and to hire Secret Service agents to screen out all taxpayers except for those that support *.


:mad: :grr: :nuke:

[taught_me_patience]

12. when they cut the funding for the SBC...

that was the last straw for me. We get the least out of our taxes than almost any other country that I can think of.

And my taxes are nearly 40% :mad:

taught.

[Bouncy Ball]

21. What's the SBC?

[animuscitizen]

13. Condaleeza's designer wardrobe, "Homeland Security", Prisons, Bombs

I hear you--it is frustrating. In NY State, we have some of the highest taxes in the country. We have the same problems you described.

Condi is looking extra spiffy since her promotion. At least some tax dollars are at work. :crazy:

[unhappycamper]

14. Paul Bremmer lost $8,800,000,000

maybe you can ask him for a few $$$$.

[chlamor]

15. No Need to Speculate-Here are the Numbers

http://www.warresisters.org/piechart.htm



HOW THESE FIGURES WERE DETERMINED

hese figures are from a line-by-line analysis of detailed tables in the “Analytical Perspectives” book of the Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2006. The percentages are federal funds, which do not include trust funds — such as Social Security — that are raised and spent separately from income taxes. What you pay (or don’t pay) by April 15, 2005, goes to the federal funds portion of the budget. The government practice of combining trust and federal funds began in the 1960s during the Vietnam War, thus making the human needs portion of the budget seem larger and the military portion smaller.

“Current military” includes Dept. of Defense ($427 billion), the military portion from other departments ($106 billion), anticipated “supplemental allowance” ($25 billion), and an unbudgetted estimate of supplemental appropriations ($85 billion). “Past military” represents veterans’ benefits plus 80% of the interest on the debt. Analysts differ on how much of the debt stems from the military; other groups estimate 50% to 60%. We use 80% because we believe if there had been no military spending most (if not all) of the national debt would have been eliminated. For further explanation, see box at bottom of this page.

Current Military, $558B:Military Personnel $109B, Operation and Maintenance $154B, Procurement $81B, Research and Development $68B, Construction $7B, Family Housing $4B, Retired Pay $46B, DoE Nuclear Weapons $17B, NASA (50%) $8B, International Security $8B, Homeland Sec. (50%) $16B, Ex. Off. Pres. $78, Misc. $4B, “Allowance for Anticipated Supplemental” (Iraq) $25B
UNBUDGETTED: $85B (est.):Most of the spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is not included in the President’s Budget but the Administration has announced it will seek this money as supplemental appropriations later in year as it has in the past two years

Past Military, $384B: Veterans’ Benefits $70B; Interest on National Debt (80% estimated to be created by military spending) $314B

Top Pentagon Contractors
(billions of dollars)

company
Lockheed Martin Corp.
Boeing Company
Northrop Grumman Corp.
General Dynamics Corp.
Raytheon Company
Halliburton Company
United Technologies Corp.
Science Applications Int. Corp.
Computer Sciences Corp. Humana Inc
2004 contracts
20.7
17.1
11.9
9.6
8.5
8.0
5.1
2.5
2.4
2.4


• Demonstrate and leaflet during tax season and on the last day of filing, Friday, April 15, 2005, at the IRS or a post office.

• Bring the Stop the Merchants of Death Speakers Tour to your community to learn more about corporations profiting from the war and military occupation, paid for by your tax dollars. See www.warresisters.org/merchants_death.htm or call [phone].
• Write the President and your representative and senators and demand that the military budget be cut.
• Write letters to the editor of your local paper. Send all of them copies of this flyer.

• Refuse to pay all or part of your income tax. Though illegal, thousands of Americans are openly participating in this form of protest. You can take control of your paycheck and avoid contributing to the military. Contact us for information or referral to a war tax resistance counselor near you, and check out www.warresisters.org/wtr.htm.

• Contribute resisted tax money to an organization working to help people (e.g., day care centers, health clinics, food banks, housing programs, human rights organizations) or to an alternative fund that pools tax money from resisters and gives grants to human needs and peace groups.

• Contact the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee, PO Box 150553, Brooklyn, NY 11215, [phone]; email: [e-mail]. Support the Peace Tax Fund bill to allow 100% of your taxes to fund nonmilitary programs: [phone]

[Just Me]

16. Mostly, DoD --> war profiteers/corporations. n/t

[rainbow4321]

18. George's toys...

[scarletlib]

19. eternal war and tax cuts for the rich

[Hardrada]

22. For Shrub to fly all around

And tell us we won't have to pay taxes.

[slaveplanet]

23. It doesn't go for fixin pot holes

around here either....But they sure can build the hell out of miles of that sound wall you see all around the big cities. Makes you wonder why they care so much about noise , doesn't it?

[Cleita]

24. That's too bad. When I lived in Texas during Ann Richard's

governorship, my husband and I drove all over Texas. One of the things we noted was that even out in the middle of the most isolated places, the roads were excellent. Look what Bush has brought on Texas.

We should all start demanding an accounting for our taxes. Screw them and their thievery. I'm tired of it.

[OneBlueSky]

25. war . . . killing . . . invasions . . . bombs . . . nuclear weapons . . .

you know . . . the usual stuff . . .

[Lindacooks]

26. Mostly trying to cover the cuts in federal aid.

And the feds are spending it on Iraq.

[spindoctor]

27. The exact answer is right here

http://www.nationalpriorities.org/taxday2005/taxday05.html

[fujiyama]

28. F 16s for Pakistan...

Well, we're supposedly "selling" it to them, but that's with a few billion in money we donated because of the "War on terror". So, in reality it's just more corporate welfare for defense contractors.

Don't forget a few billion in arms to other buddies of the US - Saudi Arabia, Israel, and a bunch of others.

But don't think the government is being too generous - we're building some goodies for ourselves as well! Like the F22 Raptor, bunker busting bombs, and whatever happened to that tank that even Rumsfeld thought was worthless?

Oh and then there's the billions spent on intelligence - numbers for which I believe are kept secret for years (I may be mistaken but I think the intelligence budget for even the early Cold War years are classified) - billions that still haven't protected the US soil from being attacked.

Oh and there's probably a few million for RW churches - all part of our magnificent intro to theocracy "faithe based series".

Hmmm, of course there's money that's used to pay all those media whores - some literally.

[SarahB]

29. Unaccountable sums of money to the Pentagon.