Would You Like to Know Where Your Tax Money Goes?

Congressman Jim McDermott (D-the Fightin’ 7th) has come up with an idea strikes a chord of common sense: Taxpayers should get an itemized breakdown of where their federal income tax goes. It’s in early stages yet, but it feels about time to supply people with better information about how the government spends their money.

Before you dismiss this as a McDermott stunt (too late for some of you, I know) Senators Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and Scott “My Old Pick-up Truck” Brown (R-Mass.) have joined forces on the Tax Payer Receipt Act of 2011. RedState says, “This bill could be transformational. Imagine receiving an accounting of what each citizen owes–the interest on the national debt, costs for Medicaid, Medicare, national defense, education, foreign aid, etc.”

The general idea is that something needs to be done to get better information to voters. Hilariously, a recent poll found that voters believed five percent of the federal budget was devoted to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, “more than what the government spends on transportation, law enforcement and homeland security combined,” points out the Seattle Times.

People also regularly over-estimate the amount of federal humanitarian aid, guessing ten percent when it’s something like .05 percent.

While support for the idea is bipartisan, it’s anyone’s guess as to what good it would do. It can’t be too complicated, or people won’t read it. It can’t be too simplified or it won’t adequately reflect reality. McDermott’s sample receipt is a single, two-sided sheet and even that I suspect would be skimmed by only fifty percent.

Another consideration is that–as is clear from the level of debate currently–people have an ambivalent relationship with figures that don’t support their biases. The comments thread on the Seattle Times story carries a lively, hair-splitting argument about the viability of an accurate receipt that leaves you with the distinct impression that people are ready to argue about the meaning of 1 and 0.

Lastly, of course, we need to remember that while our political leadership loves to compare the federal budget to the family budget–”It’s simple, don’t spend more than you make!”–the fact of the matter is that spending more than we make is exactly what American families do. So it is a little unrealistic to expect a receipt to turn us into an army of citizen accountants.

Yet, the receipt seems worthwhile if only for the purposes of establishing a limited common ground. No matter how you slice it, federal income taxes are paid, and do go somewhere–it’s a very low bar to agree that the government should try to offer an annual statement to taxpayers.