The average U.S. taxpayer in 2022 spent over four times as much on Pentagon contractors than on primary and secondary education, according to the annual Tax Day analysis published in recent days by the Institute for Policy Studies' National Priorities Project. NPP found that, on average, American taxpayers contributed $1,087 to Pentagon contractors, compared with $270 for K-12 education. The top military contractor " Lockheed Martin " received $106 from the average taxpayer, while just $6 went to funding renewable energy. According to the analysis, the average 2022 U.S. taxpayer: Paid $74 for nuclear weapons, and just $43 for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Spent $70 on deportations and border control, versus just $19 for refugee assistance; Contributed $20 for federal prisons, and just $11 for anti-homelessness programs; and Gave $298 to the top five military contractors, and just $19 for mental health and substance abuse. "The main message? Our government is continuing to invest too much in the military, and in militarized law enforcement, and not nearly enough on prevention, people, and our communities," NPP said. NPP's analysis comes just over a month after the White House released President Joe Biden's $1.6 trillion budget request for fiscal year 2024. More than half of that amount"$886 billion " would go to the military.
Latest
Latest News
Each news summary is created according to strict standards. Here's how we do it.
Each summary is created using a consistent editorial procedure. The target length is approximately 16 lines of 11-point Arial text in a 650-pixel-wide column. Up to 25% of a summary may be set in bold to emphasize the most important ideas. Summaries are composed of verbatim excerpts presented in the same sequence as they appear in the original news source, with very minor editorial additions. Where material has been omitted between excerpts, the omission is indicated with ellipses (...). Any words added by an editor for clarity or context appear in [brackets]. Our original news editor was Fred Burks. Tod Fletcher edited most summaries from 2007 through 2014, and Mark Bailey has served as news editor since 2014.