It is easy to gloss over on the huge numbers on the news about how much money the Federal government is giving whoever needs their ass saved this time. I wanted to reduce it to something more personal for us all. What does federal government spending mean to me?
So I started poking around for data and here is what I found:
These numbers should be correct given:
138,000,000 Federal Taxpayers
43% Of the Federal revenue comes from Federal income tax
(The amount of money * 43%) / number of federal tax payers
(1,000,000,000 * 0.43) / 138,000,000 = 3.11
Therefore:
When the government says we are going to spend 1 billion dollars, that is on average $3.11 dollars of your tax money.
Of course as different taxpayers pay different percentiles, this number could be higher or lower for you specifically, but on average its $3.11.
So, on average, this is how much YOU paid to keep these companies afloat:
Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) (2008) $ 2181.16 (US dollars)
Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac (2008) $ 1246.38 (US dollars)
Citigroup (2008) $ 872.46 (US dollars)
American International Group (A.I.G.) (2008) $ 560.87 (US dollars)
Bank of America (2009) $ 443.08 (US dollars)
Bear Stearns (2008) $ 93.48 (US dollars)
Auto Industry (2008) $ 77.90 (US dollars)
Here is the major sections of the budget broken down to your level:
Defense $2436.67
Interest on loans $582.68
Discretionary spending $1361.6
Other Mandatory (I don't really know what that means) $1891.38
Medicare / Medicaid $2106.38
So far, the total outflow of federal bailouts is at $551 Billion, thats $ 1716.88 from you. Of that money $246 Billion has been payed back to us, that $766.52 back to us.
I do believe if Bank of America or AIG called me up and said "Can we borrow about $500 dollars? Were are in a pinch!" I believe my response would be a few expletives followed by slamming the phone down, how about you?
PS:
I believe I have found accurate information, and done all my math correctly, if you see something wrong please point it out.
Data Sources:
Federal Income Tax as percent of total Fed revenue:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget#Major_receipt_categories
138,000,000 Federal Taxpayers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_the_United_States#Tax_distribution
Individual bailout sums:
http://www.propublica.org/special/government-bailouts
Bailout totals:
http://www.propublica.org/ion/bailout
Friday, October 8, 2010
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