Perspective
Will Franklin at WILLisms has a great post up that puts Congress’ spending rate in perspective.
Washington will spend $22,039 per household in 2005….
Social Security/Medicare: $7,245.
Defense: $4,451.
Low-income programs: $3,559.
Interest on the federal debt: $1,582.
Federal employee retirement benefits: $838.
Education: $627.
Health research/regulation: $614.
Veterans’ benefits: $606.
Highways/mass transit: $388.
Justice administration: $361.
Unemployment benefits: $338.
International affairs: $284.
Natural resources/environment: $275.
Agriculture: $271.
The remaining $598 is allocated to all other federal programs, including social services, space exploration, air transportation, and community development.
Keep in mind that that’s federal taxes only. I don’t have any idea how much each state spends per household in addition to this amount. And even that would leave out local taxes and fees.
Living here is expensive.
Franklin has several other interesting statistics that are worth taking a glance at. The good news is that, by some miracle, federal tax revenues have been increasing faster than Congress’ spending rates this year so far.
I wonder if there’s anything short of a violent second American revolution that can get Congress to actually *cut* spending.