In the midst of nationwide protests and a poorly managed pandemic outbreak, the political discontent in the air has become palpable and the question on everyone’s mind is the same: where the #%!$ are our government’s priorities?? To answer this question, we turn to the place most near and dear to our politicians’ hearts, their pocketbooks.
As explained in the infographic above, the four sectors most heavily funded by the federal government are healthcare, defense, education, and transportation. Believe it or not, the sector with the most allocated funding in the federal budget is healthcare. However, as evidenced by the numerous PPE shortages during the coronavirus outbreak, this allocation is not enough to serve the American people’s needs— especially when you consider how much of that allocation goes to pharmaceutical companies profiting from sick Americans.
The allocation is followed closely by the government’s next big spending item: defense. The US spends more than every other nation in the world combined on its military, and when you take into account the amount of money from the transportation sector used to build military-grade vehicles, the allocation is even larger. Yet, when it comes to foreign aid spending, the US commits less than an average amount for a “first world nation”.
Even though education has the third-highest amount of funding, there’s still not nearly enough to provide for schools in low-income areas or make a helpful contribution in paying for college tuition.
It’s clear that our politicians are not properly prioritizing our needs in the federal budget. Keep in mind, Congress is the one with the “power of the purse” in this nation and 2020’s a big election year for them. Be sure to register to vote and research the candidates (and their donors!) in your Congressional district to make sure we get some politicians in office whose priorities align with our own.