Federal Government Spending, Expressed in Tea Bags

Graphic design is not my strong suit, but for Northern California War Tax Resistance’s actions I’ve been tasked with coming up with some sort of sign that uses a bar chart to illustrate the U.S. federal government’s discretionary spending priorities based on Barry Hermanson’s numbers

Well, I’ve sketched out an idea. It’s not much to look at, but here ’tis:

Military Spending vs. Everything Else: Your tax dollars buy Pentagon pork

As you can see, I’ve integrated tea bags into the design as a way of tapping in to the latest trend in Tax Day protesting and in hopes of catching the eye of those protesters who are outraged at government spending but aren’t clear on just why that spending is so darned high.

I dunno. What do you think? It strikes me as a little cluttered and confusing, while at the same time being a little too oversimplified (for instance, the graphic doesn’t indicate that it’s talking about discretionary spending rather than all government spending). I’m not crazy about the “your tax dollars…” tag line either. Any ideas?


An anonymous war tax resister talks about her resistance and the war tax resistance movement on Steppin’ Out of Babylon with Sue Supriano:

A veteran war-tax resister, who wishes to remain nameless, talks about her twenty-year history beneath the radar of the Federal government. Living in anonymity, the resister has paid only $35 to the government since her decision not to pay war taxes. She is independently employed and rather than doing her taxes in April, she calculates what she would owe and uses the money to benefit the community directly, through loans, grants, and other support for under-represented citizens.