Tax dollars misspent

Today is April 15th -- Tax Day in the USA. This is the date on which our yearly income taxes are due.

And where are our tax dollars going?

According to the National Priorities Project, our 2008 tax dollars were divided up as follows:

• 37.3 cents: Military

• 21.3 cents: Health

• 19.8 cents: Interest on Debt

• 7.2 cents: Income Security & Labor

• 3.8 cents: Housing & Community

• 3.8 cents: Veterans' Benefits

• 3.6 cents: Food

• 3.1 cents: Government

• 3.0 cents: Education

• 2.8 cents: Environment, Energy, & Science

• 1.2 cents: International Affairs

• 1.0 cents: Transportation

Yes, the U.S. government spent more than 12 times as much money on the military than on education. There's something terribly wrong with this picture.

And it gets worse: Even as President Obama and Defense Secretary Gates are working on an overhaul of the defense budget to make it more efficient, they're simultaneously planning to increase the defense budget from $513 billion to $534 billion.

I have nothing against having a strong military in place to defend our country. But the Bush administration used that money and our troops to play offense, not defense.

I remain hopeful that the Obama administration will use the defense budget and our troops more wisely. But Afghanistan makes me nervous.

And so does this economic mess that we inherited from the Bush-Cheney administration.