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Rep. Stupak thinks that citizens shouldn't have to fund abortions - even indirectly - if that goes against their religious beliefs. Fake Consultant discussed this viewpoint in his diary at LIA. That got me thinking... how many of us actually know how our federal and state taxes are spent? In Fake Consultant's diary, we bandied about the idea that people should be able to direct their taxes to activities they agreed with. So if you're concerned about childrens' health care, you might direct 50% of your taxes to CHIP. If you're a defense hawk, you might want 75% of your money to fund the Pentagon. The problem with this plan is that most people have no idea how much either their state or federal government spends on anything. For instance, public opinion surveys have consistently shown that Americans believe that 15 to 20% of the federal budget goes to overseas aid. In fact, we spend 1% of the budget for programs that feed hungry children, help refugees, and support family planning programs. What if we could see those numbers on either our regular paychecks or even annual W-2 forms? What if you could look at those withholding numbers and see that 21 cents of every dollar withheld from your pay is used to funds defense and war spending while 2 cents of every dollar withheld funds education? Would that change your view of government and its role in society - and in your family budget? Charts and graphs are on the flip. They're pretty eye-opening too.
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