If you'd like to see where your tax dollars are going, the White House will show you. When I entered the median income of $50,000 for a filer with one child, that the filer paid $1,776 in income tax, assuming non-itemized filing. What an auspicious number.

The biggest tax paid, by far, is Social Security, topping $3,000.  That money will, if nobody messes with the program, directly benefit our taxpayer in the future.  So, the biggest compulsory investment is really an investment in ourselves.  In an era where Republicans did not confuse all taxation with theft, they would look kindly on that.  The government is actually helping people save for themselves.  Perhaps there are, indeed, better ways to do that, from a return perspective.  But this is a sure way.

Now, let's look at the income taxes paid.  The larges portion goes to defense but the largest portion of that goes to pay for the volunteers who do all the hard work.  I was delightfully surprised to see that.  The second line item for "ongoing operations" could well be smaller, though.  But for that we'll need fewer ongoing operations and that means the public needs to be more vigilant about wars, interventions, police actions and the like.  Some will definitely argue, by the way, that these "ongoing operations" have economic benefits.  Indeed, they likely do.  I would love to see a statement that balances those accounts (what we pay for military operations, what we get for them and where the gains go) but I doubt the Republic would survive it.

Defense related FBI activities only cost the median taxpayer $6.57 a year. So I guess I have to be careful what I complain about from a budgetary standpoint and should probably stick to arguing against domestic surveillance from an ethical perspective.

Our next big line item is health care (actually costs a few bucks more than the military, not sure about the sorting here though it's a rounding error difference).  The biggest item under that umbrella is Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program.  For $191 a year, the median taxpayer gets to live in a country where there are medical services to help fellow citizens and children.  That's got to be a good thing.  I would love to see more of it.  Probably too little ($25.40) is spent on health research and food safety.

"Job and Family Security" is the next category and the first line item, at a scant $9.59 per year per median taxpayer is "unemployment insurance."  That might be the best deal on the list.  You could never hire a private insurer to cover unemployment payments to you, should you be fired over some random circumstance, for less than $10 a year.  But I would also point out to anyone who has ever collected unemployment that you are not a mooch.  This is something you pay for, throughout your working life, and that other people pay for too.  The help is meant to be there for those who need it.  Everybody pays.  There should be no shame if it must be claimed.

What you see in the "Job and Family Security" category is that we don't really emphasize most of these issues enough in the budget but that there is no benefit that anyone might claim that hasn't been paid for previously by years of work or that won't be paid in the future once recipients have rejoined the work force.  There are no handouts, there are merely minimal standards that we have built, or will build, together.

"Student Financial Aid For College" is, for our median taxpayer, the only negative entry.  You get $0.37.  If this is truly an investment that pays dividends (we could demand a similar statement to the one we want for our ongoing military ops) then this is quite a paltry subsidy.

Finally, there's debt service.  That costs a significant $153.45 per median taxpayer.  It is, however, something of a voluntary cost.  The U.S. Federal Reserve can, when it wants, buy debt and rebate the interest portion back to the Treasury.  It's a cost that can always be managed is all I'm saying.

Over all, the receipt (and I admit it is being presented for maximum public relations effect) is not that cringe-worthy.  We can look at some of it and raise an eyebrow and we can also look at some of it and feel better about ourselves.