Did some digging around in the OMB and CATO out of curiosity:

Federal Revenues:
~ 45% Income Tax
~ 30% Social Security Tax
~ 15% Corporate Tax
~ 10% Excise Tax / Others

= ~ $2.5 trillion/year




Federal Expenditures:
~ 40% Military Expenditures (over 0.5 trillion in overseas military expense alone)
~ 25% Social Security
~ 10% Interest on the Federal Debt
~ 10% Medicare
~ 10% Other Entitlements (Welfare, Food Stamps, Earmarks, etc) and Mandatory (Highways, etc)
~ 5% Medicaid

= ~$0.4 trillion/year deficit
= ~$8.9 trillion total deficit (fiscal '09)

[EDIT: Updated overseas military expense]

georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:~ 40% Military Expenditures ($1trillion in overseas military expense alone)

low hanging fruit(or fruitcake) alert. allow me, via FactCheck.org

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/wrong_paul.html

Quote:In debates, Paul has claimed the U.S. spends a trillion dollars on a "foreign operation" each year to maintain an "empire":

One should be suspicious of this number right away. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects total spending for the current fiscal year to be about $2.9 trillion. President Bush's proposed fiscal 2009 budget would top $3 trillion for the first time. In fiscal 2008, a total of almost $1.8 trillion goes to mandatory spending on programs like Medicare and Social Security and to interest on the debt. That leaves just under $1.1 trillion in total discretionary spending, of which $572 billion goes to defense spendingEven if we called the entire defense budget an overseas cost of maintaining an empire – and then kicked in the entire $50.6 billion budget for the State Department and international programs – Paul is still $378 billion short. .

When we asked the Paul campaign for some documentation for the $1 trillion claim, it directed us to an opinion piece by a fellow at the libertarian-leaning Independent Institute. The article argues that in 2006, the U.S. actually spent just under $1 trillion on defense. To arrive at that figure, the study included a number of items that one might generally not think of as defense spending, including the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, one-third of the funding for the FBI and half of NASA’s funding. The numbers also include medical and retirement pay for veterans and a large portion of interest on the debt.

So it turns out that what Paul says is a trillion dollars for a "foreign operation" includes a lot of things that seem pretty domestic to us. For example:

The entire U.S. Border Patrol
Every military base in the United States and all the 1.4 million full-time military personnel (not just those serving overseas)

Background checks for new immigrants
Inspections of incoming cargo
All airport security programs
The issuing of U.S. passports
The FBI's counter-terrorism unit
92 percent of the interest payments on the national debt

Obviously Paul isn't advocating defaulting on U.S. Savings Bonds or doing away with border security, or even closing all U.S. embassies overseas. But that makes it all the more misleading for him to suggest that cutting out this "foreign operation" could save $1 trillion per year.

follow the link to see where the paultard said the following in the 80's, last time a similar political cycle was around.

Quote:Paul (May 10, 1988): The American people have never reached this point of disgust with politicians before. I want to totally disassociate myself from the Reagan Administration.

The OMB ITSELF ( whitehouse.gov/omb ... go on .. go and look! ) puts total defense spending at about 40% of total expenditures.

2.5 trillion in revenues + 0.4 trillion in deficit spending = 2.9 trillion

2.9 trillion x 0.40% = 1.16 trillion

Iraq alone is north of half a trillion. We'll go ahead and tack on the bases in 130 countries and Afghanistan (triple digit billions more) and round up, mmkay?

Keep in mind -- this doesn't even count black book projects where the expenditures never even reach the books. Those tend to be not exactly cheap either (SR-71 Blackbird, Area 51, et al).

Put another way ... defense spending is about equal to the sum total of all social programs the US offers. We're talking figures so big here, that even all US foreign aid only shows up as 0.50% of federal expenditures. And btw, US foreign aid to my understanding requires the money be spent on US goods, making it little more than corporate welfare.

You think Iraq is costing us 500+ Billion a year, GTS?

and your obviously not reading Fact Check's analysis. Of that "trillion" a significant portion of it is DOMESTIC related, plus things like the State Dept, our embassies, etc. the war part is relatively cheap compared to all the other.

its a Lie to claim we are spending "$1 Trillion a Year" on "Empire"


although, if you are a kook that in 2007 makes statements such as

Quote:There’s nobody in this world that could possibly attack us today. I mean, we could defend this country with a few good submarines.” - Ron Paul

your liable to fudge numbers and do everything possible to justify your Rothbardian worldview. The Jihadist, and all Anti-Liberty/Anti-Capitalism' best friends

RebelKev Wrote:You think Iraq is costing us 500+ Billion a year, GTS?

Excuse me -- I read a cumulative summary from a few years back.

Annual up front cost is $120 billion a year for Iraq.

This does not include:
- Infrastructure Cost
- Future Vet Care
- Any spending for Iraq that doesn't go through the DofD (Homeland Security, etc).

The percentages are still correct, and annual overseas military spending still over half a trillion.

GGniner Wrote:

Quote:There’s nobody in this world that could possibly attack us today. I mean, we could defend this country with a few good submarines.” - Ron Paul

Ron who?