Friday, April 16, 2010

Defense and security are part of where the tax money goes

Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is 43% of the taxes we pay.
Defense is 20% of the taxes we pay
Homeland Security is 2% of the taxes we pay.

Part of the taxes we pay goes to taking care of veterans. Veterans we were very glad to have serve when we needed them however we seem to have a problem taking care of them afterwards.

When you stop and think about where our money goes and what it pays for, all the things we say are important to us, it is very hard to understand the people protesting paying for them. This is not to say there is not wasteful spending but if the people protesting taxes protested wasteful spending instead of all spending, then they would have a valid point. The problem is, when they complain about they "don't want government" involved in their Social Security, their Medicaid or Medicaid, it is a ridiculous argument. They end up delivering a message they want the benefits but don't want to pay for having them.

This is not the worst part in this. The worst part is that 22% goes to homeland security and defense. This means the men and women serving as well. The men and women we deployed into Iraq and Afghanistan, into the Persian Gulf, Vietnam, Korea and the few remaining WWII veterans. These are the men and women we deployed into other foreign lands in order to provide security in times of peace. They are the men and women so committed to their states, they decided it was worth their lives by serving in the National Guards and Reserves and ended up being deployed into Iraq and Afghanistan.

So many people in this country do a fine job of cheering on the troops when we are sending them into combat but these same people never seem willing to live up to the obligation of taking care of the wounded when they come home. We scream when we want this nation to be safe but we never seem to manage to understand there is a price to pay for it. There is a price to be paid because of our security that is paid everyday, year after year, by those wounded for having provided it to us. Next time you hear someone say they don't want to pay taxes, remember where the money goes and then have them talk about the wasteful spending instead of spending on everything.


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