On Wed, 18 Jan 2006 21:03:16 -0500, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:

"zadoc" wrote in message
.. .
So what is it all being spent on? Well, as it happens I was listening
to an interview with John Kenneth Galbraith on Radio National [which
is also Radio Australia] a couple of days ago...

snip

As much as I like the old codger, take that with a big grain of salt. The US
budget is a cornucopia for anyone who likes to cook with statistics.

If you take the whole US budget, including Social Security, military
spending runs around 19% of the budget. For comparison, Medicare (our
medical insurance for seniors) is 13% of the budget. Medicaid, which is
medical insurance for the poor, is 8%. Social Security is 21%. (These are
the New York Times figures, which are respected in the financial community
and in other places where people really want to know what the numbers are,
and aren't trying to use them for propaganda.)

But Galbraith is old, and remembers when we didn't count SS in the budget
(pre-1965, I think). In those terms, if you accept the (probably twisted)
statistics of the anti-war crowd, military spending in total looks like 48%
of the budget. I seriously doubt if it's that high.

So, pick the numbers you want to fight with, and go for it. Just keep in
mind that no one will believe any of it. g

And paying interest on the rapidly rising deficits? Don't
forget to repay the borrowings from the Social Security system.
And as interest rates rise ...

See "Allocating $5.6 Trillion Surplus 2002 - 2011"
"Overview of the President's 10–Year Budget Plan"
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/usbud...nt/budiii.html

"Unfortunately, this 2001 view of the world proved far removed from
subsequent budgetary reality."
http://www.cbpp.org/9-7-04bud.htm

"In Fiscal Year 2005, the U. S. Government spent $352 Billion of
your money on interest payments* to the holders of the National Debt.
Compare that to NASA at $15 Billion, Education at $61 Billion, and
Department of Transportation at $56 Billion. For the current FY06, at
$133 billion, it's already the third largest expense of our budget!"
http://www.federalbudget.com/
--
Cliff