Dem think tank releases taxpayer calculator

The centrist Democratic think tank has unveiled an online gadget that allows a user to input their federal tax bill, then shows the exact amount that person contributed to more than 30 parts of the federal government. 

The tool also gives an exact breakdown of federal spending, from the 20.7 percent that goes toward defense to the 0.0 percent that are earmarked for Washington, D.C., and the White House. 

In a recent Washington Post op-ed, Third Way’s David Kendall and Ethan Porter of the journal Democracy note that Americans often don’t have a clear grasp of what the government spends their tax dollars on – noting, for example, a poll showing respondents believe the U.S. spends roughly one out of every four dollars on foreign aid.  

Visitors to Third Way’s site, on the other hand, would see that a taxpayer who paid $2,790 in taxes – the median amount in 2008, Third Way has said – would have supplied roughly $570 to Social Security and less than $16 to foreign aid. (Not to mention: $9.59 to statistics and weather.)

Sens. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and Scott Brown (R-Mass.) have introduced legislation that would mandate that Americans are told in detail how their tax dollars are spent. 

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), the chairman of the House Budget Committee, also commented in a recent interview with the Associated Press that many junior lawmakers are also somewhat in the dark on how the federal government splits up its spending.