As the U.S. funded a genocide in Gaza and military destabilization abroad last year, the average taxpayer paid over $5,000 in income taxes to fund militarism and its supporting projects, a new analysis by the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies finds.
The analysis released Tuesday found that programs bolstering or supporting the Pentagon, border militarization and deportation, prison and policing, and veterans’ programs took $5,109 of the average American’s income taxes in 2023.
Of this, $2,974 of the average taxpayers’ money went to the Pentagon alone. And because defense contractors receive more than half of the Pentagon budget — fueling skyrocketing profits, CEO pays and stock buyback budgets in recent years — they were able to pilfer $1,748 from the average taxpayer in just one year. Lockheed Martin, which is profiting directly from Israel’s genocide, received $249 from the average taxpayer, more than the typical weekly food expenses for an American household, the report found.
“It’s outrageous that the average taxpayer is giving the equivalent of a month’s rent to Pentagon contractors,” said National Priorities Project Program Director Lindsay Koshgarian. “These big corporations are already not paying their fair share in taxes. Instead, ordinary people are subsidizing those corporations’ profits and multi-million dollar CEO pay packages.”
The report found that the average taxpayer shelled out more for militarism than Medicare, public education, food stamps and other programs like renewable energy projects combined, the report found. Medicare and Medicaid — which provide health care coverage for tens of millions of people in the U.S. — saw $4,308 in the average taxpayer’s contribution in 2023, while education saw only $346, food stamps saw $516, the child tax credit saw $110 and renewable energy and energy efficiency programs only got $10.84.
By contrast, the average taxpayer paid more to fund Israel’s military than they did energy efficiency programs in 2023, costing $14.58 on average — more than double the federal minimum wage. Even Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has contracts with NASA and the Pentagon, received more than such climate programs did, pocketing $12 of the average Americans’ taxes.
As affordability has plummeted and Americans struggle to afford basics like shelter, food, utilities and emergencies, hundreds of billions of dollars that lawmakers have dedicated to U.S. militarism went toward increasing surveillance and police repression of Americans. It also went toward fueling economic, environmental and political instability across the world, helping to create one of the most volatile moments for the Middle East in modern times.
This includes funding and support for Israel’s genocide of Gaza, in which over 33,000 Palestinians have been killed so far, including over 13,000 children, with over a million people on the brink of or already experiencing famine due to Israel’s starvation campaign.
Taxpayers have been helping to fund the genocide despite the majority of Americans disapproving of Israel’s military actions and the U.S.’s support of Israeli forces, as well as the use of taxpayer money for Israel’s military incursions likely being against U.S. law, experts have said.
“The average taxpayer contributed $112 to foreign militaries in 2023, including $14 for the Israeli military. Those tax dollars have directly supported the Israeli military’s destruction of Gaza,” Koshgarian said in a statement to Truthout. “There are clear actions the administration can take to make sure that our tax dollars stop supporting genocidal actions in Gaza. Those include immediately stopping the flow of U.S. weapons to Israel, and reinstating aid to UNRWA.”
Despite declining affordability for the average American, however, the U.S. continues to increase its already sky-high budget for the Pentagon and militarization year over year. President Joe Biden has proposed $1.1 trillion in funding for militarism programs for the 2025 fiscal year, including $850 billion for the Pentagon.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.