Hi All – Today, April 15th, is Tax Day, when our federal income taxes must be paid and postmarked by midnight. Amid the many program and departments of the federal government being cut by the Trump/Musk dictatorship, today is a good time to pause and try to take in how the federal government uses our tax money. My thinking about Tax Day is prompted in part by the absence of discussions of the cost of our military machine when we are protesting Trump’s cuts to our federal programs and services. These cuts are substantial and in many cases destroy, and are intended to destroy, entire programs. Yet in our protests so far, our zillion-dollar military machine goes virtually unmentioned, as does the wars and the cost of wars (Gaza, Ukraine) to which many billions of dollars have been allocated. Why this is, and how it might be changed, are subjects for another time; but it is worth thinking about why our protests against Trump/Musk steer clear of talking about the wars our government is funding. Below I’ve linked some charts and text from the War Resisters League, which each year publishes a pie chart showing where our tax money goes, and from the Costs of War project of Brown University, which has tons of details about the same thing. I hope you find this info useful – let’s think about it as we protest the high taxes we pay for so little in return.
This pie chart is from the War Resisters League. For info about the WRL and more charts, go here.
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Tuesday, April 15, 2025
ON MY MIND
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