The effective rate in the US is about 50%. As a consequence many people have an anti-tax attitude since they are not getting value for their taxes. The social programs that taxes fund in Europe are only being used half as efficiently in the US.
This lets the neo-cons build on the anti-tax feeling and blame the tax rate on social programs (especially for the poor). The net result is that safety net programs in the US are underfunded compared to elsewhere. Part of this libertarian mindset is to blame poverty on the victims as some sort of moral failing.
Just today a government commission recommended cutting back on the tax exemption for home mortgage interest. This will impact the middle class. In addition they recommended eliminating the alternate tax which affects only the wealthy. Just another example of shifting the burden to those least able to afford it.
I've written about the problems with wealth redistribution in this short essay: Wealth Distribution Policies not Politics ---- Daily Landscape
(Note: The US figure is FY99...I'd think it is a bit higher by now...)
Amount
I would also add in the high costs of our policing functions. This is a quasi-military expense as well and does nothing for direct social programs. Prison population in the US is highest in absolute numbers as well as a percentage of the population.
Here's a link to some statistics: http://www.warresisters.org/piechart.htm Policies not Politics ---- Daily Landscape
(click on graph for bigger version) In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Public health care spending for example is overall much larger than defense, yet on that graph it is virtually non existent.
Are you sure about that? Last I heard, America is spending more on their military than the whole rest of the world put together... "Once in awhile we get shown the light, in the strangest of places, if we look at it right" - Hunter/Garcia
Umm, yes. Public sector health care spending is about 7% of GDP, defense is about 4%.
I hope you will complain with the same vigor the next time we compare public sector expenditure between countries, and France (and others) are said to carry unsustainable burdens because healthcare is paid from the public purse instead of being paid by individuals to private insurance companies, or similarly with pensions...
... or when the marginal tax rates of France and the US or UK are compared, without taking into account the most basic automatic deductions, and the family allowances. Not everybody is a young bond trader...
I suppose all I am saying is - Americans seem surprised when superficial arguments are used against them, and don't seem to realise how often they make the same. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
The true picture is that America does spend significantly more on defense than most developped countries - about twice as much. It also spends quite a bit on health care but its people get a very poor return on that spending while private sector health care does very well out of it. I have no idea how education spending compares across countries.
As for what AEI or the WSJ do - well it does remind me of that study 'showing' that people in Mississipi are better of than Swedes. But I'm really not convinced that their quality of arguments about Europe are a model to follow.
