If Taxpayers Could Choose Where Their Money Goes....

[rucky]

How would you portion it out, percentagewise - not including Social Security?

Here's the current breakdown for FY2004, courtesy of
http://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget/FY04/DiscretionaryPieFY2004.html

Note: This does not include SS, Medicair/re & Interest on the Debt

Defense - 50%
Education, Training, Employment & Social Svcs - 10%
Health - 6%
Income Security (NOT SS) - 6%
Int'l Affairs - 4%
Natural Resources & Envirnoment - 4%
Veterans Benefits - 4%
Administration of Justice - 4%
Science, Space & Technology - 3%
Transportation - 3%
Other - 6%

Edit: Another question: If all taxpayers could do this, how different do you think the breakdowns would be from Bush's current budget?

[RobertSeattle]

1. I always thought a cool 1040 would allow you to do this

After you figure out your total taxes for the prior year, you could allocate it based on your personal preferences. It would be an interesting signal to the Federal Government about the population's wishes. (Of course the Rich would have a bigger "say" but it could still be an interesting thing to see)

[Gulf Coast J]

2. Those numbers don't smell right...

http://w3.access.gpo.gov/usbudget/fy2004/sheets/hist03z1.xls

For 2004, subtract SS, Medicare and interest on the national debt from the total budget and you get 1.2 trillion. National defense spending would have to be $600 billion to be 50% of that. I don't recall seeing any estimates that are that high.

It's hard to answer the question by just doling out percentages. Some talk about the massive amounts Bush is spending on defense, which is true, but as a percent of the budget it really isn't much more than what Clinton spent. It's also hard to say something as broad as 'Int'l Affairs' without knowing where the money is going. Are we talking about giving billions to Egypt and Israel, or are we talking about funding AIDS releif for Africa? I don't think I could answer the question right now.