by d_burfoot
6 subcomments
- Many Americans do not realize how much money the US government spends. When you include all three levels, it comes to $32K/person/year [0]. This is much higher than countries that are considered "social democracies" such as Finland, France and Canada. If you look at wealthy blue cities like NYC or SF, the spending is on the order of $50K/p/y, comparable to Norway.
It is not realistic to believe that we can become a nice wholesome European country if we just raise taxes a bit. The extra money will just be squandered and stolen.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_governmen...
by lastofthemojito
20 subcomments
- As a thought experiment, it'd be interesting to imagine how things would play out if each taxpayer could adjust little sliders on each category to allocate where they personally would like their taxes to go.
Agencies could recommend funding levels, Congress could recommend an allocation and if a taxpayer didn't change it, that default would take effect. But if a taxpayer preferred, they could say, "no, I won't be funding DOD this year". Or space nerds might say "I'm sending 100% of my tax dollars to NASA!"
Of course no one would likely choose to do boring stuff like paying interest on debt. So we'd probably end up with incredibly well-funded national parks and cool space missions, and also a crippling recession due to defaulting on the national debt.
- I feel like legislation that resulted in every taxpayer getting an itemized receipt like this would be hugely popular and a massive PR win for the representatives that sponsored it.
I can only conclude that the reason it hasn't been done is because they don't actually want you to know.
- This makes it sort of obvious how large the US welfare state is.
Medicaid: 10%
"Safety Net": 7.1%
Social Security: 22.6%
Medicare: 14.2%
53.9% of the federal budget is spent on welfare. That seems roughly in line with most Western nations.
- I can’t help wondering about the categorization. For example, we spend more on “agricultural subsidies” than “NASA & space” or “EPA & environment”, but for some reason the former gets hidden under the “all other” category while the latter two get their own distinct categories. The author might not have a political motivation for those choices, but it’s the kind of choice that will likely influence the political conclusions the reader will make from the data.
- More and more I find my politics drifting towards whoever will balance the budget and pay down the deficit.
Since that party doesn’t exist I am politically homeless.
- Where did my taxes go?
Unpopular answer but ask your favorite AI to show the history of how taxes increased in the USA since 1913 and what those taxes were spent on. Then ask how often such programs are ever removed and the taxes are reduced and surplus given back to the people.
Related recent discussion of taxes in California [1]
[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inOci0iH4Q8 [video][15 mins]
- Love it - great application of publicly-available data. Also ref https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47420307 US govt provided public debt resources.
By the way, the 1040 instructions have a pie chart like this (ref https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040gi.pdf, page 122). Not that most people do taxes themselves, or have a reason to read to page 122 of instructions for a single form. But still it's there and perhaps a nice gesture by the IRS.
Breaking it out into pie charts etc like this can be really helpful. In my view the real kicker with taxes is the opaqueness. Kinda like a meal card versus paying for every meal, or like using a credit card versus paying with cash, it's hard for humans to really grasp what's going on unless they're involved.
Of course it would be impractical to pay taxes separately to every waiting hand in government bureaucracy. But on the other hand maybe the number one goal shouldn't be ease of use, either. Maybe a little friction when paying for public services could be a good thing for citizens who are interested in a healthy country - my opinion.
by janalsncm
1 subcomments
- Shouldn’t the “defense” line item be called “war” now since the department has been renamed? It’s more accurate anyways.
by insane_dreamer
0 subcomment
- It's important to separate SS/Medicare from the rest of budget for these discussions, because those are non-discretionary, which means that the government can't re-allocate that money elsewhere or spend it on something else. Those are also categories where each taxpayer directly and personally benefits, and in the case of SS in proportion (roughly) to what you put in (unless it breaks/goes broke, that's a different conversation). That is completely different than the actual Federal Budget, which is determined by WH+Congress, from which you and I do not directly benefit (unless you're a shareholder of Lockheed Martin or Raytheon, or you're Don Jr. or Kushner), and which they can determine spending on.
And when it comes to that discretionary Budget, roughly 1/3 goes to the Military and 1/3 goes to Debt Servicing.
And the primary reason we have so much debt is because of the military spending, since that's our biggest expense and because the government can't borrow to fund SS and Medicare.
So basically, we taxpayers are funding a military state and subsidizing the defense industry (while being told that subsidizing any other industry is "un-American".
- I’ve always known the breakdown in my head, but seeing the raw numbers by category was pretty eye opening - particularly how much I’m contributing per month to support something like say, aggressive wars in the middle east that are driving up my gas prices.
- I really wish we would get away from this line of thinking. For state and local governments, yes, your taxes are put into accounts and are then spent according to the budget.
For the federal government, no. Money that is paid in taxes is effectively eliminated. The total number of dollars that exist in circulation is reduced. When the federal government spends money, it is creating all new money. It can’t run out. It’s not your tax money that is being spent.
- Insurance company with an army primarily. But now with an expensive credit card bill.
- Interest on the national debt is by far the largest share. Both political parties spend like drunken sailors.
- Now consider that the Defense budget is ~$1 trillion and the Department of Defense has never passed an audit [1] and the administration is seeking $1.5 trillion next year [2].
[1]: https://www.taxpayer.net/budget-appropriations-tax/why-cant-...
[2]: https://www.npr.org/2026/04/03/nx-s1-5772701/trump-budget-de...
- The unbundling of "Veterans Benefits" from "National Defense" is such an American thing, as though the former would exist without the latter.
by johnmlussier
0 subcomment
- Welfare, defense, interest on debt. That’s it.
by patrickthebold
1 subcomments
- Somewhat off topic, but I've always wanted to know _who_ gets my tax dollars more than what they were spent on. For example, a middle class salary to someone building bombs in Ohio is different than a wealthy investor who owns shares in some educational company that provides standardized tests to local public schools.
by insane_dreamer
0 subcomment
- Get rid of the national debt.
Cut the military budget by 50%.
I wish I could cut my taxes in half and refuse to have them go to the military budget or servicing the debt.
I'm happy for my taxes to go to all the rest (which could be increased).
by ForHackernews
0 subcomment
- In the UK, HMRC provides this breakdown itself to every taxpayer in their online portal.
by waynecochran
1 subcomments
- I would be more likely to share this w others if the domain name didn't have an f-bomb in it. It doesn't bother me that much, but I really don't want to share it in certain circles...
- I love how easy this kind of mini data visualization projects have become
by ChrisArchitect
0 subcomment
- Related:
Tax Wrapped 2025
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47755604
- >Key laws that shaped FY2025 spending
>P.L. 118-50
>Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act
-$4.0B to replenish Iron Dome and David's Sling interceptors
—$1.2B for Iron Beam laser defense system development
—$3.5B in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) for Israel
—$4.4B to replenish U.S. defense articles transferred to Israel
—$2.4B for USCENTCOM operations in the region
—Funded as a supplemental outside normal appropriations
Most Americans have no idea how much money we give to this tiny nation on the other side of the world.
by BurningFrog
0 subcomment
- Easy to remember fact:
The federal government spends $20B per day. $5B of that is borrowed.
- This is great. I'd also recommend Covid money tracker. US printed nearly $12 trillion in response to Covid, something like 25% increase in money supply. And it is my contention that this has driven inflation (both asset - think meme stocks, rise in crypto etc - as well general levels that started to appear by 2022)
https://www.covidmoneytracker.org/
- Since we renamed DOD to DOW, should the Defense budget be renamed too?
- > Interest per Second - General - The U.S. pays $31,688/second in debt interest — $1,901,285 every minute. Your share of that: $3893.33 [plugged in "normal" amount], gone before it bought anything.
...I thought I was already sufficiently terrified by the debt numbers...
by kamikazeturtles
1 subcomments
- I look forward to a website that tells me who to vote for based on my occupation, socioeconomic status, and who will be the most benefit to me
That will be the true death knell of democracy
- I can understand why zero isn't a valid entry, but it should be. That is an entirely plausible result for a federal income tax calculation.
- nice visual. Would be nice to vote on what money gets spent on what.
- https://www.usaspending.gov/ is another great website for this stuff. I suggest using the Budget explorer. Here's the map by function (e.g. national defense, healthcare): https://www.usaspending.gov/explorer/budget_function
by kylehotchkiss
0 subcomment
- I would like a refund on my subsidies for farmers and salary payments to congressional staff, please.
by khernandezrt
6 subcomments
- If the US had a credit score, I wonder what it would be?
- On HN we don't much care about profanity per se, so there's no need to bowdlerize a la "the fuck" -> "the heck".
In this case, though, the best option is probably just to take out the expletive.
- You’d better look out, because I’m gonna say “fuck”.
https://genius.com/Ben-folds-rockin-the-suburbs-lyrics
by johnmlussier
0 subcomment
- Debt. Defense. Dole.
- [dead]
by cultofmetatron
0 subcomment
- If only I could elect to send 4000 to NASA and not to enable israel's genocide in the middle east.
edit: bring on the downvotes, israel is committng a genocide and doing it with out tax dollars.
- How many people are murdered per dollar spent on "defense"?
Hacker News