Dean Baker: Baffling Budget Numbers: Making Reporters Do Their Jobs

Monday, 24 June 2013 10:07 

The vast majority of the public does not have a clue about where their tax dollars go. Polls consistently show that the vast majority of the public has almost no idea of where their tax dollars go.

They tend to hugely overestimate the portion of the budget that goes to items like food stamps, public broadcasting and foreign aid, and to underestimate the importance of Medicare, the military and other core items in the budget. As a result, people are often ill-informed when it comes to political debates on budget priorities.