National Priorities Project Breaks Down Federal U.S. Government Tax Dollar Spending For 2013
The National Priorities Project recently reported a break down of how the U.S. government spent our tax dollars in the 2013.
According to the organization's math, roughly half of every dollar citizens paid in federal income taxes went to military spending and federal health programs, CNN Money reported.
In 2013, the federal government spent 27 percent of tax dollars on the military and the 22.7 percent covered the cost Medicare, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program.
Nearly 14 percent of the taxes citizens paid went toward paying off interest to federal government's debt while 9.8 percent paid for unemployment and labor programs, including training and temporary assistance for needy families, according to the report.
The federal government used 5.1 percent of the tax dollars for veterans' services and about the same for food and agriculture programs.
A little more than 4 percent was spent on agencies that run the government as well as law enforcement agencies such as the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the CNN.
The remainder of the U.S. tax dollars helped pay for education, transportation and housing services. Housing programs for community development block grants received 4 percent of the tax dollars while education programs such as Head Start and Pell Grants got 2 percent.
Programs for science, international affairs, transportation and energy each received less than 2 percent of the tax dollars.
People can check to see a break down of what their federal income taxes paid for in 2013 at the National Priorities Project.
A person who paid $15,000 in federal income taxes for 2013 would have spent more than $4,000 on the military, roughly $3.4 thousand on health, a little more than $2,000 for debt interest and almost $1.5 thousand on unemployment and labor while the spending the rest on veterans services, food and agriculture, housing and community, education, and energy and environment.