3 On Your Side: What The Government Does With Your Income Tax Dollars
By Jim Donovan
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- With tax season now over, hopefully you got a refund instead of owing Uncle Sam.
But did you ever wonder what the government does with your income tax dollars? 3 On Your Side has the answer.
That tax bill can be a big headache. Unlike most bills, it may be hard to know exactly what you're paying for.
But the folks at the National Priorities Project broke it down based on projections by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.
Last year the federal budget was 4.2 trillion dollars.
About half of that comes from your income taxes.
The NPP looked at that budget and saw how much was spent where.
More than 50 percent of your taxes fund two areas, health and safety.
The biggest spender?
Health programs. Those took up more than 28 percent of the budget.
Next in line, the Pentagon and the military which spends a little more than 25 percent of the budget.
The other chunk of the budget, 13 percent, goes to pay interest on our debt.
Everything else gets a smaller piece of the pie.
Unemployment and labor programs account for eight percent. Veterans benefits take up five percent. More than four percent pays for food and agriculture. Three percent pays for education programs.
And government expenses eat away at about three percent.
All the rest get less than two percent each of the budget and that includes housing and community programs, energy and environmental programs, international affairs programs, transportation funding and last but not least, science funding.
If you want to see, down to the penny, what your specific income taxes paid for check out the NPP's federal tax receipt calculator.