This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
What The US Government Spends Its Money On
The following chart from today's TBAC presentation slidedeck should put to bed all debate of not only what the US government spends its money on (of which about half is generated through tax collection and half is borrowed primarily from either China or the Fed), but also what the trends in current year spending are compared to 2011. In summary: of the 4 biggest categories HHS (Medicare & Madicaid), Social Security or together Welfare, Treasury and Defense, Welfare is higher, Treasury is higher, and Defense is not only lower, but has lost to Treasury as the third biggest expense category year to date.
»
- 29869 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
True, but it was a somewhat rhetorical question. If any of us were privy to the actual balance's it would probably end up like this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&NR=1&v=oep4mRpmrkQ
a belgium economic delegation just came from Greece and noted that nothing has changed. not a single chance or austerity was implemented.
it's just on the tele over here.
So, that means they will be getting the next aid installment just in time?!
hookers whi know what you like is the next best thing to perfection
Don't spend shit on labor, veterans, trans, o, ed, or cd. But CD ticked up 'cause ebbody a tarrist nau.
That's right, americans don't need freaking education, they all have enought IQ to understand Bernanke.
Dude, this is federal spending. Centrally planned public education isn't working very well, and expansion of the DOE won't help.
Dude, what percentage of the spending was here again? Seems to me you get what you pay for. Isn't that what a true capitalist would say? How is that cognative dissonance working out for you?
Real capitalists wouldn't say more money to centrally planned education. Jesus!!!
That would be like saying the only reason the FED, CFPB, FDIC, FINRA, SEC, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, CFTC, and 50 state regulators didn't catch MFGlobal or PFGBest prior to the JPMorgan theft...I mean implosion was simply because ALL of those regulatory agencies were under-funded, under-staffed, and there not enough regulations.
Unless of course, you were referring to the liberal Media's definition of capitalism and the capitalism that RINO's endorse.
Yes, real capitalists let bad businesses and bad management fucking fail, applies to to everything, including education!!! I guess some folks are just better slaves than others. Same as it ever was.
There's the rub: How do you govern a majority of people who want to be slaves while also maintaining maximum liberty for those who do not?
A civil war?
This is the US. There's really no "centrally planned" public education.
The Dept of Ed does studies and such, but actual educational decisions are almost entirely in the hands of the local school boards, and paid for with property taxes.
Seems that electing small-town school boards doesn't work real well, for sure, but that's no reason to believe the Feds would do it better.
What public school isn't taking fed funds, and therfore, subject to the Imperial govt.'s diktats?
Even the Soviets would be embarassed by the level of propaganda American students are subject to.
You have obviously been very effectively indoctrinated, so I do understand where you're coming from. The educational system in the US is about producing conformity and submission, not education.
So what are you doing about it?
I think I recognize ya, by the way. I was wondering what had happened to you. How's Tel Aviv this time of year?
The education system is about supporting the teacher's unions and producing barely literate proles who will support the socialist politicians.
Mission accomplished.
That's really not accurate as nearly all local decisions in pub ed are constrained by federal title regulations. The purpose of fed money is to act as a carrot to keep states from abandoning centrally programmed "reforms." The real purpose of these reforms is to reconfigure "public" education into a "private" enterprise - supported by your tax dollars. Just make out the education portion of your tax bill to Gates and Walton; they'll know what to do with it.
McSchools are on the way, and they will be popular, profitable, and entirely standardized - just like the fast food joints. They'll be just as good for children, too.
That's a great chart and should help to prove that inflating our way out of this is a FAIL. Every one of those expense areas will go up with inflation and so will the debt in an endless spiral. Event horizon people. We're there. MOAR QE!
Weird, I just used that phrase before scrolling this far down the page. I've also got Godsmack's "Spiral" stuck in my head.
And all I keep thinking of is John Belushi in Animal House:
“Over? Did you say 'over'? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no! ”
I mean this as compliment, but isn't ZH just like modern virtual Animal House? A place where outcasts and misfits can gather to speak freely and lay plans to survive everything that Dean Wormer and the TPTB can dish out. I have always felt more at home with the outcasts and misfits anyway, so why should this be any different? Rock on TD! Rock on ZH!
What all does the Treasury budget go to?
Paying interest on the debt to fund the rest of the chart naturally. It's good to be a bankster!
Thats the interest on the debt being carried. So we now officially spend more in a year on interest on the debt (at 1.5%) then we do on defense. Nice. This should end well.
Between WWIII and ZIRP I expect that metric to fully revert to the mean, and then massively overshoot it as destruction consumes all.
How is SS in there isn't that meant to be from a different fund. under treasury does that include interest and bailouts. what else goes under treasury. As for defense does that include all the wars etc, i bet the number is much higher.
Does this take into account the shadow funding? How about the built in fraud? The double and triple billing? The expense accounts? The $47 per gallon fool(fuel), the gold toilet seat of years past? What about the bar bills and credit card charges for booze, hookers, porn and their drugs of choice? How about the bribes from and to everyone's mother's account in the Cayman's?
No, these are the government's figures.
Am I reading this chart correctly? Do we now, in 2012, spend more on the Ministry of Silly Walks than on Defense? In your face Monty Python.
When HHS and SSA BOTH account for more of our annual expenditures than "defense" (considering our countless undeclared wars, drones, etc.) you know something is fucked.
That's a good sheep, keep believing those numbers...
or look behind the curtain...
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/02/the-real-defense-bud...
FYI, the American military is the single largest consumer of oil, don't expect it to ever be inexpensive so long as that is the case. And yes, the military is the strong arm of government. Ah the prisoner's dilemma...
That would be the accounting.
Hmmm...I don't seem to see Italian 10Y listed there. Only people I could think of that were buying them today.
Its funny how social security is actually making the us less secure.
...and the dept of education has made us all dumber, while the dept of defense has made us defenseless.
I think it all started when they made the dept. of the interior and put it in charge of the outside. Of course, once Lincoln destroyed the union, what choice did we have but utter incoherence?
Not all of the war spending is included here, try again. So essentially, the capital and resource mis-allocation continues. Same as it ever was.
Treasury is mostly INTEREST PAYMENTS. If we immediately balanced our budget and interest rates go back to Reagan level rates, interest payments will choke America. If you think Daddy Bernanke can keep interest rates low, then fed chairman Volcker was a complete failure who caused great harm to the American economy.
Once the algobots destroy what little is left of the capital markets, interest rates will be so easy to manage, even Benron could do it.
Simply put, rates are going from a market environment to political one. The only bond "vigilantes" left are being brought on board the front-running game, or "aren't in the club" and will be liquidated in the fashion of a certain Mr. Celente (a paper-gold vigilante).
Once again, there is NO market.
If they'd just spend more money on Blackwater to help collect on delinquent student loans, the 'Education' category could fall off that chart completely!
What is "Treasury"? Is that interest on the debt?
Because interest rates are extremely low right now. What would happen if they went back up even to the levels we had in the 90's?
Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!! Someone please get Rob Jones a prize. ;-)
So any kind of normal economic recovery would cause the US government to become insolvent.
"Luckily" for them, there's no chance of a normal recovery, as it's too painful for anyone to dare consider.
I think this is known as selling one's soul to Satan.
One election at a time.
SO i guess Obama has spent more than 1.4 trillion after all.
Well duh, he spents like what? 3 trill a year? so of course hes spent more than 1.4tn
"OPM?" It's all OPM.
Good catch Fred! I was going to post on that. OPM? WTF, it is ALL OPM.
:)
pods
Federal government retirees.
What this country needs is another undeclared war in Southwest Asia. And a Venus colonization program. Things are fine, they can get even better. Football season coming up, the Bengals are lookin' good.
Can't see the entries for Porn, Hookers, and blow.
Does thet get included under Labor or Government?
Bad business model!
I don't see a porn catagory. That must fall under OPM.
The sad thing is that for Transportation and Education etc...the little ones, that isn't actually spent on transportation but government bureaucrats that create more regulations and paper...my guess is the amount that gets at buying pencils and trains is tiny
no qe. market still just farting around. life goes on.
Hey the CFTC just came down on a silver manipulator! Breaking news!
http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page32?oid=156210&sn=Deta...
$250,000 fine. Damn, that CFTC just plain WORKS!
</sarc>
Damn, wrong thread. Thought it was the Greece-deficit-debt-bomb-track.
Where are the black expenditures? They would keep defence above treasury for a few more years. Not to mention that "Other Defence Civil" line item. So big they can't hide it.
And there is no effing way you can cut SSA without giving up its' revenue. Even if you tear up the bonds it defaults to pay-as-you-go. If you try to cut the pay without cutting the go you lose both the 1% and the teaparty, each of whom is paying half. Good luck with that.
Oh and run a poll: Would you rather your money pay welfare queens in the US, whose benefits get spent here, or bribe warlords on the other side of the world who will kill innocent people and park the proceeds in Switzerland? I'll give odds on the results of that one.
If it's anything like the '80s/'90s, the "black" expenditures are funded by CIA assets selling drugs and weapons, so they don't cost "taxpayers" anything other than what they're already spending on drugs and illegal guns.
Like a super morbidly obese person, the gov't must consume more and more just to maintain its weight. Just wait until financing costs become an issue.
Doesn't DHS report up through Treasury?
So, "Defense" (ie: military) spending down, while Homeland Gestapo spending is UP...?
Brownshirts and arm bands- coming soon to a cop near you...
It would be nice to have more explanation of what constitutes the Treasury category. I am assuming that the $450 billion in interest is in there but I am not sure, if DHS is under that umbrella I would expect the number to be higher.
The 4th Reich has everything under control.
Why is it called the Defense Department and not the Offense Department?
the way things are looking they won't be spending money for long
survivingsurvivalism.com
I really don't trust those numbers. do you really think they can complile legimate numbers for defense? what about whereabouts of $1 trillion missing from the Pantegon more than 12 years ago?
Why would you count that? OBVIOUSLY it didn't go to DEFENSE.
Good news. Cut defense a worthless expenditure and balance the books. A better life for all. Imagine wealth creation if 20% of defense budget wsa used to close the budget gap!!
Better recalibrate defense spending - It's a little lite in the impact factor.
Why is Treasury a category?
Talk about a black curtain, it is hidden in plain sight!
At least citizens benefit writ large on every other silo EXCEPT treasury.
That, shit-heads, is the racket of rackets.
Here's a little quiz for all you SS experts:
T or F, The SS fund has taken in more money than it has every paid out to SS recipents.
Good luck!
TRUE
Now let's not be too hasty - military hardware and arms is one of our only leading industries - at least unlike big finance, it actually involves producing something. And let's admit it those black op, black slush fund CIA dollars have really borne fruit to sell arms - Syria, Libya, Yemen, Sudan, IRAQ, etc, etc
Gore Vidal passed away the other day in 2009 his comments to the London Times America is "rotting away at a funereal pace. “We’ll have a military dictatorship pretty soon, on the basis that nobody else can hold everything together.”
Indeed a slow agonizing death march.Bitchez u best not touch my foodstamps!
You forgot the GSA Party Fund for Las Vegas, etc.
Greenspan started the accounting chicanery re: Social Security - Reagan et al all politicians don't like using the T word (although R did raise taxes some 11-12X) probably would have been more but Alan moved the monies - the Federal shell game paying Peter by robbing Paul.
Same shit with the 2006 USPS pension/health accrual - now that overfunding has grown estimated at abou $100B move that amount back, and well the deficit at the consolidation level looks worse.
Raising the mimum wage that has stalled at 1965 levels, if adjusted for inflation would be $10.50 and an economic argument can be made that productivity in per capital GDP is equitably shared over the last 40 years brings that amount to $24/hr and presto Social Security is solvent: and a realistic retirement age say of 68-70 given current life expectancy and remove the cap of $106,000 and apply rate to all earnings and SSTF would be solvent for 75-100 years.
Medicare is the gods gift to a fee for service utilization/consumption based voracious health care system - hospitals, doctors etc. Capitation for all and outcomes based reimbursement and that "crisis" is solved. But some of course, like a crisis - finally that brass or golden ring within grasp - killing Grand ma and the New Deal.
The ACA and the SCOTUS decision mute points as the big insurance players were already moving in that direction realizing that in ten years they would even price their cherry picked favorable risk out of the market.
2010 Tax Revenue [it's gotten worse...] :6% other; 40% payroll; 3% excise; 42% individual income; and 9% corporate!
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3411
Note: tax holidays don't work, period!
thankyou Tyler
If we start another war somewhere in order to generate returns to FIX this economic disaster here at home, just make sure this time, to BRING HOME THE SPOILS OF WAR. Last couple times, even though we kicked their ass, we got sidetracked with rebuilding their country in our image with democracy and all, and forgot to confiscate our share of the oil.
So, this is what the investment funds and banks have decided that we spend our money on. I seem to remember that "Defense", wars and spying, were quoted at close to a trillion a year.
The chart doesn't tell the whole story. I'd like to see government expenditures broken down into the percentage of government outlays that go to the top 10%, 1%, 0.1%, and 0.001% of the income earners. A Chicago Professor once analyzed what percentage of government help for the poor went to the poor. The answer was 17 cents of a dollar and the rest went to the poverty industrial complex.
Paying into Social Security your whole life does NOT make it "welfare". No amount of right-wing spin on ZeroH can change that. Actual welfare for the poor runs about one half percent of GDP.
The only welfare that is destroying America is strictly "conservartive welfare".
I mean REAL welfare. All brought to you by Republican CONSERVATIVES.
1- The trillions in off shore tax evasion scams by major corporations and the rich who evade taxes, especially DURING WAR. In any other country...this is called TREASON.
2- The US tax dollars that fund the "Faith Based Initiative" to churches across America...in violation of the US Constitution. Pat Robertson took $500,000 from the taxpayer in one year alone.
3- The US taxpayer funding of the same cult houses (religion) that PAY NO TAXES while they use our infrastructure of roads, bridges, police and everything else that supports society.
4- The billions in subsidies to oil and gas companies...WHILE THEY POST RECORD PROFITS.
5- The farm subsidies that go to people like Michelle Bachmann and other Republican business people disguised as public servants.
6- The contracts to privateers making billions in the military-industrial complex who bribe Congressmen to keep perpetuating war....like Northhrop and Halliburton.
7- The prison-industrial complex that bribes states to write strict laws that keep their jails full so they can charge $200 dollars per day per prisoner to the US taxpayer in yet another PRIVATIZATION SCAM. While government is non-profit...privateer PROFIT is worse than any tax...it goes into yachts and mansions...not your roads and bridges.
8- Billions lost in revenue because corporate executives and the rich pay 15 percent in capital gains taxes while the rest of us pay 23 percent in income taxes.
Yes...it turns out the greatest thieving pigs of society are called CONSERVATIVE Republicans.