Where our money goes: An itemized tax receipt
The Republicans are about to take control of the House of Representatives, and House leader-to-be John Boehner (R., Ohio) says their top priority will be creating jobs by cutting government spending. That's dubious as economic theory, but it's good politics: spending is unpopular, especially among the voters who powered the Republican takeover.
But what programs does the GOP want to cut? While party leaders have been clear about their other Tea Party-friendly plank—extend the Bush tax cuts, even for those who don't need the money and won't use it to stimulate the economy—they've remained persistently vague as to what significant spending cuts they favor.
There's always more public support for the abstract cry of "let's reduce spending" than for actual cuts to individual programs. Self-interest plays a role here. The larger issue, however, is that people tend to have a pretty hazy sense of where their tax dollars go in the first place. This makes it easy to score points with nebulous pledges to cut spending but difficult to have a serious conversation about how the government spends our money.
