It Bears Repeating

While we're at it, let me remind you of a couple of enduring truths about American society.

Total Outlays (Federal Funds): $2,650 billion
MILITARY: 54% and $1,449 billion
NON-MILITARY: 46% and $1,210 billion

First: we are bleeding our lives away to keep the Pentagon happy. It's helpful, I think, in this time of austerity and suffering by millions of people in this country, to see how much of our substance we're giving over to the department of war and its slavering maw that just engorges billions of our tax dollars every single day. God only knows how much money we've given the Pentagon since the end of WWII--certainly in the trillions of dollars. And what has the obscene amount of money bought for us? They call it "national security." Excellent! Now . . . just how secure do you feel? (You can see exactly how this percentages were arrived at here.)

Second: Guess who's paying for everything, brothers and sisters? You think it's the people who have all the money? Why, hell, no! It's the people like I and thou. Note well that those with the most money pay comparatively less than everybody else. You can read all about this right here. Here's some of the relevant text:

The effective federal income tax rate for the 400 taxpayers with the very highest incomes has declined by nearly half over the past two decades, even as their pre-tax incomes have grown five times larger, new IRS data show.[1]

The top 400 households paid 16.6 percent of their income in federal individual income taxes in 2007, down from 30 percent in 1995. This decline works out to a tax cut of $46 million per filer in 2007, or a total of $18 billion in tax cuts for these households per year.

To make it into the top 400, a household needed an adjusted gross income of at least $35 million in 1992 (in 2007 dollars) and $139 million in 2007.

Now, don't that just give you a nice warm fuzzy? It just tickles me plumb to death.