Senators Scott Brown, R-Mass., and Bill Nelson, D-Fla., introduced a bill Wednesday that would give taxpayers an itemized receipt showing where their money is being spent and how much the federal government borrows every year.
Scott Brown
Under the bipartisan legislation, every taxpayer who files an income tax return would receive an itemized receipt—similar to a grocery store receipt—from the IRS that lists where their payroll and income taxes are spent. The receipt would include key categories such as the interest on the national debt, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, national defense, education, veterans’ benefits, environmental protection, foreign aid—and, last but not least, Congress.
Taxpayers also would be directed to a Web site where they could get more detailed information on programs not included on the one-page receipt. Additionally, the receipt would provide taxpayers with the amount of debt per American—which currently is more than $45,000.
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“During this tough economy, American taxpayers deserve to know exactly how the government is spending their hard-earned dollars,” Brown said in a statement. “Our bipartisan legislation will help give Americans the tools they need to better understand federal spending. As we work together to rein in our spending and tackle our national debt, it is important that we provide transparency and accountability to the process to help us determine what spending we need and what we can live without.”
The bill will be heard by the Senate Finance Committee, of which Nelson is a member. “Taxpayers have a right to know where their money goes, how much Uncle Sam is borrowing on their behalf, and what they get in return for it,” said Nelson.
Separately Google has introduced a similar concept with its “Data Viz Challenge” showing people how their tax money is spent. The Google challenge is based on a Web site called WhatWePayFor.com that uses public data to estimate how tax money is spent. Visitors enter their income and filing status, and the Web site generates a table showing their contributions to various parts of the federal budget. Google has teamed up with the not-for-profit art and technology center Eyebeam to challenge developers to create more interactive displays of how tax money is spent. For more information, visit http://datavizchallenge.org.
10 Comments
The information is already widely available to those who would be able to understand it. Proposed amendment: The Brown-Nelson* receipt must itemize separately in 14-point type the costs of information already provided and in 18-point type the new cost of the "silly idea from Inside the Beltway" of the receipt itself.
*This act may be referred to by the short title of "The Brown-Nelson Anything-to-Get-Me-Reelected-Again Act of 2011"
Posted by: EnrolledAgent | March 6, 2011 12:01 PM
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I find this just another way for a politician to be politically correct and make points with voters. This exersize serves no valuable purpose, and would keep IRS employees from doing their job, collecting NOT spending money.
Posted by: jbkraut | March 3, 2011 12:45 PM
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I agree with the other comments. This would cost millions, if not billions, of dollars and the receipt's info would be questionable, as best. If individuals wants to know who his tax money is spent, they can find it easily on line. If they don't care, this ploy will only serve as shock value the first time; after that, they still won't care.
What would the receipt show to the millions of "taxpayers" who receive large tax payments called refundable credits? Will it show them where the money came from?
One of the more ridiculous bills to be proposed out of a long line of ridiculous bills - Congress should cut cost and stop coming up with new ways to spend money.
Posted by: paulagame | March 3, 2011 12:18 PM
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I read this and my first thought was to agree with everyone that this would be another waste of our tax dollars, but then I thought about it some more and realistically they already have the percentages of where things go as part of the budget process so really all the receipts would be doing is applying those percentages to whatever the tax number is and mailing that out. Granted I do think this is still very unnecessary but I don't think it is that big of a cost. Yet still unnecessary for a government that is struggling to make ends meet...
Posted by: tapout2taxes | March 3, 2011 12:06 PM
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shawn- If certain people are unaware of irresponsible shape the federal government is in, they are not paying attention to main stream media. What makes you think this will help?
Posted by: MR BILL | March 3, 2011 10:50 AM
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This better show a line item of the cost to generate this piece of garbage.
Posted by: MR BILL | March 3, 2011 10:27 AM
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The concept sounds nice, but I'm not sure how the Treasury Dept. could pull this off without wasting billions of dollars in the process of it. Put me in there and I can do it for under a hundred grand :-)
Posted by: jrsalvato@gmail.com | March 3, 2011 10:07 AM
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While this will undoubtedly cost money, taxpayers are woefully uneducated about what various programs cost, especially entitlement programs, and thus are susceptible to special interest group lobbying. I applaud anything that might help awareness.
Posted by: shawnv200 | March 3, 2011 9:24 AM
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Another waste of tax dollars. I can only imagine how many would have to be added to IRS staff and the logistics costs for such an effort. Congress should be cutting costs and stopping spending not discussing endeavors that add to our government costs.
Posted by: benusmc | March 3, 2011 8:17 AM
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Another waste of tax dollars. I can only imagine the number of employees that would have to be added to the IRS staff for this and the cost to taxpayers. What I want to see from Congress is "STOP SPENDING" .
Posted by: benusmc | March 3, 2011 8:13 AM
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