4 ms·

You've got to separate federal taxes from state taxes to understand how the US spends its money. In general the federal government is well funded and squanders

You've got to separate federal taxes from state taxes to understand how the US spends its money. In general the federal government is well funded and squanders its money on wasteful and unnecessary defence projects, such as having more aircraft carriers than conventional military wisdom says that they need. Such things don't enhance the US's defensive situation. The F-35 is another great example. But states are generally underfunded, because lowering taxes is always popular and easy to do in state politics. State budgets are dominated by boring things such as education which an aging electorate often cares little about. And states are always in competition with their neighbours with regards to taxes, so raising sales tax might actually push more shopping across the state line to your neighbour. Couple that with the situation in California where any tax increase has to be voted on by the general public as a "proposition", and you get a scenario where adequate state funding becomes almost impossible.

cbhl 11y ago
We should put a proposition on the ballet to repeal that anti-tax-increase proposition, once and for all.
Spooky23 11y ago
Don't equate spending with good governance. New York figured out the tax collection thing, and our schools and other infrastructure cost more and work poorly. Also, the Feds fund a wide variety of state operations, especially in social services and transport.
- douche 11y ago
  > Also, the Feds fund a wide variety of state operations, especially in social services and transport. And education too. Money supposedly ear-marked for special education and free-and-reduced lunch floats many rural school districts; maybe there's a similar story for urban districts, but I wouldn't know about those.
rayiner 11y ago
80% of the federal budget is stuff other than military and VA benefits.
- AnthonyMouse 11y ago
  Specifically about 60% of the total budget is Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, ACA subsidies and safety net programs. Then we have your 20% (16% DoD and 4% VA), then 6% goes to interest on the debt, and the remaining 14% is everything else. Though FWIW the percent of the budget spent on the military was (for somewhat obvious reasons) quite a lot higher during the Iraq war.
- cpt1138 11y ago
  http://whatwepayfor.com/ http://whatwepayfor.com/
brewdad 11y ago
Also, most if not all US states are required to run a balanced budget. This can result in cuts when forecasted revenues don't match actuals. The Federal government simply borrows more money and kicks the can down the road.
- criley2 11y ago
  "Also, most if not all US states are required to run a balanced budget. This can result in cuts when forecasted revenues don't match actuals. The Federal government simply borrows more money and kicks the can down the road." This is a misnomer that I see quite frequently: "states must run a balanced budget" and it leads to the exact terrible conclusion you came to: "only the federal government kicks the can down the road". This is totally wrong. State governments can and do assume debt (generally issue municipal bonds) to cover short term deficits. They play funny money all over their budgets so they can mask what they're doing, but when states like Kansas cut hundreds of millions of highway funding to plug budget deficits, then repeal laws on debt caps and make the department of transportation issue record levels of debt to continue those projects, that's what they're doing. They're taking debt (issuing bonds) to plug deficit holes caused by lowering taxes.
- handedness 11y ago
  That doesn't prevent them from becoming deeply in debt: http://www.treasurer.ca.gov/graphs/go.asp http://www.treasurer.ca.gov/graphs/go.asp
todd8 11y ago
Actually, we spend quite a bit on education. From The National Center for Education Statistics: > In 2011, the United States spent $11,841 per full-time-equivalent (FTE) student on elementary and secondary education, an amount 35 percent higher than the OECD average of $8,789. At the postsecondary level, U.S. expenditures per FTE student were $26,021, almost twice as high as the OECD average of $13,619. (see [1]) [1] http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cmd.asp http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cmd.asp

cbhl 11y ago

We should put a proposition on the ballet to repeal that anti-tax-increase proposition, once and for all.

Spooky23 11y ago

Don't equate spending with good governance. New York figured out the tax collection thing, and our schools and other infrastructure cost more and work poorly. Also, the Feds fund a wide variety of state operations, especially in social services and transport.

douche 11y ago
> Also, the Feds fund a wide variety of state operations, especially in social services and transport. And education too. Money supposedly ear-marked for special education and free-and-reduced lunch floats many rural school districts; maybe there's a similar story for urban districts, but I wouldn't know about those.

rayiner 11y ago

80% of the federal budget is stuff other than military and VA benefits.

AnthonyMouse 11y ago
Specifically about 60% of the total budget is Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, ACA subsidies and safety net programs. Then we have your 20% (16% DoD and 4% VA), then 6% goes to interest on the debt, and the remaining 14% is everything else. Though FWIW the percent of the budget spent on the military was (for somewhat obvious reasons) quite a lot higher during the Iraq war.
cpt1138 11y ago
http://whatwepayfor.com/ http://whatwepayfor.com/

brewdad 11y ago

Also, most if not all US states are required to run a balanced budget. This can result in cuts when forecasted revenues don't match actuals. The Federal government simply borrows more money and kicks the can down the road.

criley2 11y ago
"Also, most if not all US states are required to run a balanced budget. This can result in cuts when forecasted revenues don't match actuals. The Federal government simply borrows more money and kicks the can down the road." This is a misnomer that I see quite frequently: "states must run a balanced budget" and it leads to the exact terrible conclusion you came to: "only the federal government kicks the can down the road". This is totally wrong. State governments can and do assume debt (generally issue municipal bonds) to cover short term deficits. They play funny money all over their budgets so they can mask what they're doing, but when states like Kansas cut hundreds of millions of highway funding to plug budget deficits, then repeal laws on debt caps and make the department of transportation issue record levels of debt to continue those projects, that's what they're doing. They're taking debt (issuing bonds) to plug deficit holes caused by lowering taxes.
handedness 11y ago
That doesn't prevent them from becoming deeply in debt: http://www.treasurer.ca.gov/graphs/go.asp http://www.treasurer.ca.gov/graphs/go.asp

todd8 11y ago

Actually, we spend quite a bit on education. From The National Center for Education Statistics: > In 2011, the United States spent $11,841 per full-time-equivalent (FTE) student on elementary and secondary education, an amount 35 percent higher than the OECD average of $8,789. At the postsecondary level, U.S. expenditures per FTE student were $26,021, almost twice as high as the OECD average of $13,619. (see [1]) [1] http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cmd.asp http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cmd.asp