On another scale, “Israel receives about $3 billion in direct foreign assistance each year, which is roughly one-fifth of America's entire foreign aid budget. In per capita terms, the United States gives each Israeli a direct subsidy worth about $500 per year. This largesse is especially striking when one realizes that Israel is now a wealthy industrial state with a per capita income roughly equal to South Korea or Spain.” (http://www.ifamericansknew.org/stat/usaid.html)
Our money helps Israel enforce their military occupation on the Palestinian territories, namely Gaza and The West Bank. Financially there is no doubt that we support this; however do the majority of Americans support oppressing and segregating an entire people, simply for existing?
I am not using this article to try and bash America, but when I look at these figures it infuriates me. And I’m not the only one. Take a look at this article that describes a contest that teaches 5th graders about tax spending and then asks them what they would do if they had the trillion dollars it would take to fund our current government budget. One 5th grader agreed with me and just replied “it makes me mad.”
I firmly believe that knowledge is power, and being that the federal budget is funded by OUR income and payroll taxes, we Americans are all stakeholders in their big pot of revenue. “And tax day provides the way in. It's imperative that all Americans get informed and engage in the heated debate over how our tax dollars are spent by our nation's government. It's both our right, our responsibility and the exquisite privilege of our Democracy.” (https://www.nationalpriorities.org/pressroom/articles/2012/04/13/fifth-grader-says-im-mad-at-the-government/)
In that same article, it states “Herby, age 16, from Miami said, ‘An educated world is a more open-minded world.’” With the little money we spend on education today, how can we hope to be that open-minded world?
So I ask again…do you know where your tax dollars are going?
Sources: nationalpriorities.org, ourfuture.org, ifamericansknew.org, dosomething.org, nchv.org, water.org and theguardian.com