If anyone has a breakdown, I'd be interested in seeing it. I'd just like to see what exactly our government spends money on and how much and compare that with defense spending, education, etc.  

FY 2005

Good grief.

That explains a lot right there. And the left is saying the war in Iraq is bankrupting our nation? Sheesh.

If you are looking for a more detailed accounting of where your $$$ go, click here:

It is for 2007 (fiscal year, prez proposed and original source is the White House)
link to charts
A few interesting tidbits:  
Total AFDC spending : 47.3 billion
Total Medicaid (for poor folks) and Medicare (for old folks): 870.6 billion


remember, the budget doesn't include emergency or additional outlays like when the Prez says in July, "Hey, we need some more money for Iraq."


ETA: AFDC is what we think of when we think of welfare.  AFDC is now a smaller program than both the EITC and child tax credits.  Who woulda thunk it?  

wow

Quoted: mwhodges.home.att.net/95budget.gif FY 2005

Jesus Christ! Why?!  

And the number of people contributing into that is decreasing (and about maxed out in what they are "willing" to contribute) and the number of Boomers taking from it is going to explode in the next 20 years.

NOW do you understand why the pols are so Hell-bent on making the illegal invaders "legitimate"? (like that will actually fix the problem).

Education spending IS social spending.

Charles Murray has been pushing something he calls "the Plan" lately. The idea is to simply end all the government anti-poverty programs, SS, welfare, etc, and replace it with a simple cash grant to everone over 21 of $10K per year, of which $3K would have to be spent on health insurance. Half of the grant would go away if you earn over $50K.

You could earn at the poverty level if you work a minimum wage job for six months out of the year. If you spend it all on hookers and blow, well, too bad for you. In the meantime all the government infrastructure for the existing systems go away.

Yeah, I've heard of "the plan".  Not cheap, either.  

Even according to Murray supporters, if you started "the plan" right now it would cost more (350 billion per year MORE is estimate I saw) than we already spend.  His argument is that the programs cost wouldn't increase over time like soc security/medicare.