Bill Maher was on a roll the other night in his New Rules. He donned a tri-corner hat and became a tea bagger for the evening. In Maher's monologue he claims we borrow 61¢ for every dollar spent (it's actually only 57¢ but what's a few pennies). Last year about 35¢ of every dollar was spent on the military and about 20¢ of every dollar was spent on health care. Of the remaining 45¢, 10¢ was for government and 8¢ was for interest on the national debt. The remaining 27¢ goes to food, income and labor security, Housing, environment and energy science, education, and transportation. Everyone complains about entitlements but that's a small portion of the debt.
Remember, 57¢ of every dollar spent was borrowed and 34¢ came from income tax. The remaining 9¢ came from corporate tax, excise tax, and estate tax. Wow corporations get off cheap!
The top marginal tax rate for an individual making over $372,000.00 is about 35%. In Eisenhower's day the top marginal tax rate for the wealthiest Americans was 91%. Throughout the 70's it was 70% and Reagan dropped it to 50%. By the last year of the Reagan presidency it dropped to 28%. Clinton took it back to 39% and of course Bush dropped it to 38% and then 35%.
The big story is not really where the money comes from but that 35% of our money pays for the military. Supporting our empire, the war on terror, weapons of war that are out of date, nuclear stockpiles, 500,000 troops around the world. As Bill Maher put it the military spending is really a public works project that puts what FDR did to shame.
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