


WHERE YOUR INCOME TAX MONEY REALLY GOES

The United States Federal Budget for Fiscal Year 1991


29%  -  CURRENT MILITARY, $330 billion
        Military Personnel $79, Retired Pay $11, Operations and
        Maintenance $86, Family Housing $3, Procurement $79, Research and
        Development $36, Construction $5, Nuclear Weapons (DoE) $10,
        International Security Assistance $9, Coast Guard $3, NASA (estimated
        military portion 50%) $7, Other (CIA, President's Fund for Central
        American, FEMA) $2

23%  -  PAST MILITARY, $259 billion
        Veterans Benefits $30, Interest on National Debt (80% estimated to be
        created by military spending) $229


 9%  -  SAVINGS AND LOAN CRISIS/BANK BAILOUT, $101 billion
        FDIC and Resolution Trust increases

 6%  -  PHYSICAL RESOURCES, $70 billion
        (Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, HUD administration/community
        development, Interior Department, Transportation, Environmental
        Protection)

23%  -  HUMAN RESOURCES, $259 billion
        (Education, Health and Human Services, HUD housing subsidies, Labor
        Department)

10%  -  GENERAL GOVERNMENT, $112 billion
        (Government, Justice Department, International Affairs, Peace Corps,
        20% interest on national debt, civilian portion of NASA)

--------------------------------

100%    Total Federal Funds, $1.1 trillion


HOW THESE FIGURES WERE DETERMINED

        All these dollar figures are for fiscal year 1991, as reported in the
Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 1992.  The percentages are
Federal Funds, calculated after removing Trust Funds (such as Social
Security), which are raised and spent separately from income taxes.  What you
pay (or don't pay) on April 15 goes only to the Federal Funds portion of the
budget.  The government practice of combining Trust Funds and Federal Funds
(the so-called "Unified Budget") began inthe 1960s during the Vietnam War.
The government presentation makes the human needs portion of the budget seem
larger and the military portion smaller.

        "Current military" spending adds together money allocated for the
Department of Defense ($287 billion) plus the "defense" portion from other
parts of the budget.  Spending on nuclear weapons (without their delivery
systems) amounts to about 1% of the total budget, about 10% with delivery
systems.

        "Past military" is represented by veterans' benefits plus 80% of the
interest on the national debt.  If there had been no military spending, most
(if not all) of the national debt would have been eliminated.  Analysts differ
on how much of the debt stems from the military; estimates range from 50% to
100%.  We felt that 80% may even be conservative.

        This year we include a separate line for savings and loan/bank
bailouts.  Line items for the Resolution Trust Corporation and FDIC took huge
leaps in the 1991 regulation and the greed of bank owners.

        This chart is calculated from fiscal year 1991 "budget outlays"
reported in the President's proposed 1992 budget publication.  We use 1991
outlays (bills actually being paid) to show where your taxes due on April 15,
1991, are going.  The President's proposed 1992 budget is debated by Congress
through the spring and summer of 1991 for approval by the beginning of the
government's fiscal year in October 1991.  Contact your legislators now with
your concerns!

        WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST: The President did not include the war in the
current 1991 or proposed 1992 budget figures.


Source:  War Resisters League
         339 Lafayette Street
         New York, NY  10012


