How These Figures Were Determined
Because the President is late with the Fiscal Year 2014 budget, and Congress has not passed the FY2013 budget (was to begin Oct. 1, 2012), the figures in the large pie chart are projections from tables in Analytical Perspectives, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2013 (published Feb. 2012). These figures may be more Obama’s wishful thinking than reality. The Human Resources section has grown with the addition of funding for new health care insurance tax credits. “Current military” includes the Dept. of Defense budget and the military portion from other departments as noted in the box above. “Past military” represents veterans’ benefits plus 80% of the interest on the debt, which will grow with increased costs for veterans’ care, along with higher interest rates for debt-funded wars.
The figures are Federal Funds, which do not include trust funds — such as Social Security — that are raised and spent separately from income taxes. What you pay (or don’t pay) by April 15, 2013, goes to the federal funds portion of the budget. The government practice of combining Trust and Federal funds began during the Vietnam War, thus making the human needs portion of the budget seem larger and the military portion smaller.
THE GOVERNMENT'S DECEPTION
The pie chart at right is the government view of the budget. This is a distortion of how our income tax dollars are spent because it includes Trust Funds (e.g., Social Security), and most of the past military spending is not distinguished from nonmilitary spending. For a more accurate representation of how your Federal income tax dollar is really spent, see the large graph.
Source: 1040 Forms and Instructions 2012,
Federal Outlays for FY 2011
For more explanation about the WRL pie chart and differences with those published by other groups, see "Pies, Graphs, and Income Taxes" by Ruth Benn and Ed Hedemann
