Tax Day: A Third Of Your Tax Money Is Spent On Wars And Security

If you are a US citizens ,or a resident with income in the United States, today is the IRS deadline to file your tax return unless you have filed for an extension. In Washington, the “talk of the town” is the ballooning budget deficit and finding ways to cut it. However, because 99 percent of America’s political class, Democrats and Republicans alike, are not willing to address the real issues behind the disarray of the US economy, the $ 1.5 trillion pound gorilla in the room which represents war and “security” spending will keep running amok. Currently, the United States borrows 40 cents of each federal dollar spent and a very large portion of this debt get swallowed by the black hole that is the industrial-military complex.

In fiscal-year 2010, the US Department of Defense budget accounted for 20 percent of the US federal budget or 28 percent of tax revenues. However, if non-direct DOD expenditures are included, defense spending was approximately 35 percent of total budget expenditure. According to the Congressional Budget Office, defense spending grew 9 percent annually between fiscal-year 2000 and fiscal-year 2009. For fiscal-year 2010, Department of Defense spending amounted to 5 percent of the United States GDP. For fiscal-year 2012, defense and security expenditures combined are projected to be between $ 1.030 and $1.5 trillion.

To maintain the empire, kill people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya and elsewhere, and give American citizens a fake sense of security at home, your tax dollars will be spent as follow for fiscal-year 2012: The base budget and “overseas contingency operations” for the Department of Defense will be $707.5 billions; the FBI counter-terrorism cost will reach $2.7 billions; energy department defense related spending will stand at $21.8 billions; veterans affairs will cost taxpayers $70 billions, veterans pensions $54.6 billions; and, last but not least, the interest on debt incurred in past wars will be at around $300 billions.

In comparison with other countries military spending, in 2009 the United States military spending accounted for 40 percent of global defense expenditure. It is currently six times higher than the military budget of China. The United States is responsible for between 2/3 and 3/4 of worldwide military spending. Talking about fiscal responsibility without addressing the madness of war and security spending is a farce played at the expense of the American people. If America’s political class was serious about the budget deficit issue, they would first reconsider the United States imperialist policies which have been bleeding the US treasury dry since World War II.

This $1.5 trillion a year monstrosity created to maintain the empire and sold to Americans as a “necessity to keep America safe” is only benefiting the industrial-military complex. Americans should demand from their elected official to re-think this road to perdition by requesting that the US military gets out of Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Japan, Germany, South Korea etc. Otherwise, this country will keep disintegrating from within, go bankrupt and eventually collapse.