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Where Do Your Federal Tax Dollars Go?

(If you want to call your federal and/or state Legislator(s), use the Find Your Legislator tool at the Oregon Legislature?s website.)

I always wince a bit when I hear people say that someone in "Washington D.C." steals their tax dollars. Yes, sometimes it?s true that a crime against us taxpayers has been committed, but sometimes our communities get a lot of those dollars back, though only after Congress takes out money for fighting wars, national security, diplomatic missions, economic development, social security, medicare, corporation subsidies, international medical aid, etc., etc., etc.

If you?re at all curious about which states get how much ?return? on the federal tax dollars sent to federal coffers, here are a few places to start off your research. More serious and thorough research will take more work:

1) Federal tax dollar to D.C. and federal tax dollar back to Oregon: The Tax Foundation has this chart that shows Oregon, in 2005, received back $.93 of the federal tax dollars they paid in federal taxes.

2) They have a lot of other reports that you might find interesting.

3) For additional views of money sent back and forth from state and local governments to the federal government:

4) Visual Economics

5) National Priorities Project (including the Cost of War)

6) Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

7) Brookings Institution

8) U.S. Treasury and the Budget

Full post as published by Oregon Legal Research on December 15, 2010 (boomark / email).