UCSD National Priorities for Tax Spending Discussion

1. Visit the website National Priorities Project https://www.nationalpriorities.org/interactive-data/taxday/ nd review the section “Your Federal Tax Receipt”. Under “View Tax Receipt for your state”, click on California to see what the average federal income taxes paid by a person in California for last year.

2. Visit Brown University’s website and browse the website to read more about the costs of war. https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/

Answer the following questions:

• Given the scale of the military budget, what are the trade-offs between socially useful spending and military spending? For example, spending on higher education vs. military spending.
• How much is the average Californian contributing to military spending?
• Is there a connection between our state’s spending (or cuts in spending) on social services and higher military budgets?
• Why are such high military budgets justified?

3.Reply one student