structured procrastinators(tax time)

Have you done your taxes yet?  Do you seek pleasure instead of pain?  Do you have an underlying social disorder that allows you to delay filling out tax forms?  Are you a procrastinator?  Do you put things off until the last minute, believing as some do that when under pressure to get something done you will do a better job?

Well welcome to the life of a structured procrastinator, one who can get the job done, times it just perfectly, but just by the skin of their teeth.

Structured procrastinators all over the US are calculating how many days they still have left before they REALLY have to do their taxes.  i was one of them until i gave up my hedonistic ways yesterday and bit the bullet.  Pleasure took a back seat to pain, i slaved away and  my taxes are done, well... not completely, i still have eight days left to mail them.

Taxes are a rite of passage every year and every year i wonder where it all goes.  One year i went to the government website and wrote down all the millions and millions of dollars that were being spent on different areas of the government.  It was mind boggling, i had sheets of paper listing budgets for each office and department.  i had great intentions, i was going to work out the percents and alert the masses to the real amounts that were being spent in their names. But...the structured procrastinator that i am, the totals wallowed in a file somewhere and got old before i ever found a way to use the information.

But this year, i've done it,  i've found a website that has already done the heavy lifting and  if you are like me and seek out information you may be interested in these tax factoids i picked up out there on the internet tubes.

For every tax dollar we contribute to the Federal government the breakdown for 2009 is as follows:

26.5¢ Military

20.1¢ Health

13.6¢ Interest on Debt...5.4¢ Military...8.2cNon-Military
   
9.8¢ Government

8.5¢ Income Security & Labor

7.2¢ Housing & Community

3.7¢ Food

3.5¢ Veterans' Benefits

2.5¢ Environment Energy & Science

2.0¢ Education    

1.3¢ International Affairs

1.3¢ Transportation

Jo Comerford who is the executive director of the National Priorities Project, which analyzes federal government budget choices said on April 5th: "In 2009, health received 20.1 cents of every tax dollar while interest payments on the national debt claimed an additional 13.6 cents, of which 5.4 cents was directed to interest on military-related debt. When 5.4 cents of military-related interest is added to the 26.5 cents dedicated to paying for core military-related spending, the total military allocation is 31.9 cents of each 2009 federal income tax dollar. Education received 2 cents; the combined category of environment, energy and science got 2.5 cents; and transportation and international affairs took 1.3 cents apiece."

Take special note of these statistics. The military one isn't completely accurate if you put a little more thought into it. The break down is accurate but it's split.  Here's how i see it, add the initial military expense of 26.5 cents to the 5.4 cents for interest on military, veterans benefits is another 3.5 cents giving an actual military expense of 35.4 cents.  Under health(20.1 cents) there is probably another 8 cents for the Veterans Administration for medical coverage for veterans making the total number actually closer to 44% which is in line with other sources i have read.

The military and its related aspects take a huge chunk of our tax dollars, 44 cents.  For some of us this is OK but for others of us(me) the amount we spend on keeping the war machine going is tough to swallow.  We spend more than all the other nations of the world combined on our military.

When i speak of Peace having a place at the Federal Level i don't say it lightly.

When you are done calculating the amount of tax you will pay this year click on this link http://nationalpriorities.org/taxchart/2010 to see how your tax dollars will be spent.  All you have to do is put in the amount of tax you pay this year.  i just did mine and it is shocking how much goes to the war machine.  i hate it just as much as those on the right hate paying for poor people, give me a poor person any day for my taxes to go to.

So often the tax chatter concerns these enormous sums going to welfare recipients.  Well the reality is that the bulk of our taxes goes to the military and to pay off the national debt.
Everything else suffers.  Poor people get 7.2 cents and with education only getting a measly 2 cents we need a champion, someone with vision--and clout--who can clearly articulate why a free society requires an informed citizenry, and why investing in children means investing in the future of this nation. 


I'll bet you didn't know how your taxes are divided up.
i said this two weeks ago and i'll say it again this week.
It will be a good day when sick people get all the care they need, and the government has to hold a bake sale to buy bombs.