What do we get for our taxes?

The government spends a lot of money.  What do we get for all of that spending?

Table 4.1 lists all of the "Outlays by Agency"

Are we getting a good bang for our buck?

"Department or other unit" - What we get from it

• Legislative branch - our congressmen, and their staff, get paid
• Judicial branch - our judges get paid
• Dept. of Agriculture - we pay some farmers not to farm, so that prices go up, and it costs more to feed the poor, we pay other farmers to farm
• Dept. of Commerce - we tell people to buy stuff, if it wasn't for the Dept. of Commerce I'd never know what to do when I want milk, who else tells me to go buy some?
• Dept. of Defense - we get soldiers, tanks, submarines, and wars
• Dept. of Education - we get student loan debt and people who don't know the capitals of all 57 states
• Dept. of Energy - I thought that power plants were privately operated, this department must be in charge of banning pipelines and getting in their way, or helping the power companies by drafting rules to prevent competitors from forming
• Dept. of Health and Human Services - No Americans are poor or sick thanks to these guys
• Dept. of Homeland Security - I thought that we already had soldiers, tanks, and submarines?
• Dept. of Housing and Urban Development -blacks get government funded housing
• Dept. of the Interior - vacuums?
• Dept. of Justice - I thought we already spent billions on a "Judicial branch"?
• Dept. of Labor - encourages outsourcing
• Dept. of State - flies some of our politicians around the world, I'd pay double for only one-way tickets
• Dept. of Transportation - $1,000,000 bus stops, speeding tickets, and things known as "boondoggles"
• Dept. of the Treasury - 8 balanced budgets since 1950
• Dept. of Veterans Affairs - why isn't this included in the defense department?
• Corps of Engineers - ?
• Other Defense Civil Programs - "other," I assume
• Environmental Protection Agency - rules to save newts
• Executive Office of the President - I would post a picture of the first "lady" on vacation, but I wouldn't want to look at it myself
• General Services Administration - I didn't know that we had an official government help desk!
• International Assistance Programs -are these the guys who funded Osama bin Laden during the Iran/Iraq war?
• NASA - cancelled space programs and WD-40
• National Science Program - Science!
• Office of Personnel Management - what?
• Small Business Administration - forms for small businesses to fill out, plus more forms, and more forms, and more forms, and laws, and forms, and did I mention forms?
• Social Security Administration - misinformation on whether or not there is a special SS account or whether its revenues are just added to the rest of the budget
• Other Independent Agencies - um..."other"?
• Allowances - Hey, I found the official government waste everyone agrees to want to cut!  Why is it still here?