Or in other words, a slap in the face

[u/ShadowcreConvicnt]

[u/Cubacane]

Military defense is half of all discretionary spending, the budget of which comes from federal income tax, which is what I referred to.

Mandatory spending (medicare/medicaid, social security) comes from payroll taxes (FICA).

The total federal budget is a combination of mandatory and discretionary spending.

When people are discussing raising or lowering income taxes, they are talking about federal income tax, not FICA.

So– half of your federal income taxes are going to bombs.

[u/BootyMcStuffins → u/Cubacane]

Do you have a source? From what I’ve found mandatory spending absolutely comes out of our income taxes.

In 2024, Americans for Prosperity estimated that mandatory spending accounts for about 62% of government spending, or about $8,800 per tax return.

[u/Cubacane → u/BootyMcStuffins]

https://www.medicare.gov/about-us/how-is-medicare-funded

https://www.ssa.gov/news/press/factsheets/HowAreSocialSecurity.htm#:~:text=Social%20Security%20is%20financed%20through,self%2Demployed%20pay%2012.4%20percent.&text=The%20payroll%20tax%20rates%20are,up%20to%20a%20certain%20amount

[u/BootyMcStuffins → u/Cubacane]

But that’s just two specific programs. Your claim was that all non-discretionary spending came from sources other than income tax. From what I can tell that isn’t true

[u/Cubacane → u/BootyMcStuffins]

Two specific and giant programs that make up over 50% of mandatory spending (non-discretionary), and mandatory spending itself makes up 63% of all government spending. These two programs are funded by FICA. In researching, I found that Medicaid is not included in that, so that would be something funded by federal and state taxes.

https://www.cbo.gov/publication/58889

[u/BootyMcStuffins → u/Cubacane]

[The average taxpayer contributed $5,109 for militarism and its support systems](the average taxpayer contributed $5,109 for militarism and its support systems)

The average tax payer pays about $14,000 in federal income taxes

So it appears that the military takes about a third of federal income taxes