At this year’s Lancaster Peace Fest, 1040 for Peace representatives gave ten pennies to each of the 78 persons who stopped by our table and asked them to distribute the pennies into ten containers according to the federal budget priorities they would support. They “voted” as follows:
Education 19.3%
Environment/Green Energy 17.9%
Health 17.8%
Housing/Urban Development 10.7%
Diplomacy 9.2%
Veterans 8.4%
Mass Transit/Roads 7.2%
Agriculture 6.5%
Military/Homeland Security 1.7%
Other 1.3%
TOTAL 100.0%
Because it is not organized according to the Penny Poll categories, the actual federal funds budget, comprised of discretionary spending that Congress appropriates, doesn’t exactly compare. Some areas such as education receive far more funding through local taxes than through the federal funds budget which does not include dedicated funds such as Social Security and Medicare.
Nevertheless, there are some interesting comparisons:
- While Penny Poll participants placed military spending at 1.7%, budget analysts estimate present U.S. military spending to be 40%-50% of the federal funds budget. (https://www.warresisters.org/sites/default/files/fy2020pie_chart-hi_resb.pdf)
- Penny Poll voters want 17.9% of the budget spent on the environment and green energy. The latest information on the amount the government spent on energy, science and the environment is 3%. (https://web.archive.org/web/20140910024319/http://fcnl.org/assets/flyer/FCNL_Taxes13_final.pdf)
- Penny Poll participants would like the federal government to spend 9.2% of its budget on diplomacy. The most recent figure, according to the Friends Committee on National Legislation, is 2%. (https://web.archive.org/web/20140910024319/http:/fcnl.org/assets/flyer/FCNL_Taxes13_final.pdf)