please, i don't want this to turn into a anti-war, pro-war debate. i just want to know where this money comes from.

 

the people?

I remember reading in WWII, 1/4th of the income from each British person (apprx) went to the cost of the war. Oh well....long-term benefits.

 

There's usually a surpluss. It's now part of the budget.

Remember the "national debt" it's a bunch of IOU's....

 

There is no surplus left......

It's the income tax.

Lets see some numbers:

280 million citizens

250 million paying taxes

200 million of these people have salaries about 35,000 per year

Taxes on that salary is $6,000

Thats $1,200,000,000,000 (1.2 trillion USD) per year

Lets not forget about the 50 or so million people who make way too much money, that equals $0 (Tax shelters!)

You do the math............

 

everyone owes everyone money in this world...like it's a big IOU planet...a lot of people owe the US money anyways...what i don't figure out is why don't they just wipe the debt slate clean....

 

The answer is simple: You pay for it, or your children, depending on how greedy you are.

 

Budget deficit. We either "pay ourselves" which cause the dollar to devalue, or we take loans from other countries.

 

You forgot corporate income taxes...they help to.

But yeah it is tax dollars that are spent...our money...that is why we have elections so people can represent us on how it is spent.

 

If the top 5 richest people in the USA contribute 25% of their overall wealth it will cover the cost.

In the long run I think it is a worthy investment. With Saddam gone that is one less threat we have to worry about. If Saddam was left alone. Who knows how much damage he could of done in the future if we left him and Bin Laden alone. What price can you put on thousands of human American lives? $70-90 billion???? So what if 100 Iraqi civilian was killed. That is not even close to how many American lives that did die and may die if we don't get rid of Saddam and Bin Laden.

 

In 1950, Corporate taxes counted for almost half of the taxes the US Government took (Income and otherwise). Now it less than 5%. There are some "Executive Paywatch" sites on the web that elaborates on this issue. You should check them out. It will piss you off, though.