War Resisters League Releases 2008 Pie Chart for U.S. Budget

The War Resisters League has released its annual “pie chart” to show, according to their analysis, where your income tax money really goes. This year, according to the WRL, 20% of your tax dollar will go to pay for military spending and wars of yesteryear, and another 31% to pay for today’s war budget — including 7% that is being spent directly on the war in Iraq and the increasingly global terror war.

The WRL is respectful enough to detail how they did their accounting, and to explain why they made the choices they did and why their numbers don’t always match up with other groups who do similar calculations.

You can get PDF copies of the flier from their website.

NWTRCC coordinator Ruth Benn was interviewed on “The American Activist” this afternoon for KSKQ in Ashland, Oregon.

The host, Lora Chamberlain, had herself quit her job when the bombing of Iraq began, in order “to get off the rolls completely and not pay any taxes.” Benn had a chance to introduce her listeners to W-4 resistance and alternative funds, and to discuss the IRS collection process, asset-concealment strategies, and other ins-and-outs of tax resistance.

Alas, Benn repeated the canard about the tax line being $8,750 (or, as she later corrected herself: $18–20,000 if you take advantage of deductions and credits)! I know she knows better, because she’s been taking an active role in helping to finalize the editing of the upcoming NWTRCC pamphlet on low-income tax resistance — which is full of information on how even single people with no children or other dependents can earn more than that and stay under the line. Sigh. Clearly I’ve got more work to do.

The host of the show wanted to mix war tax resisters in with what she called the “tax honesty movement” (that is, Constitutionalist tax protesters) and the recent movie America: From Freedom to Fascism which has popularized tax protester arguments in many circles. In her mind, we’re all basically on the same side, working in favor of “true, participatory democracy” and against “the corporate fascist state” which serves the parasitical oligarchs of the “tapeworm economy.” Well… horray for low-power community radio; sure beats the crap out of the big stations.