Who Pays America's Tax Burden, and Who Gets the Most Government Spending?

Are Americans getting a good deal for their tax dollars? While many studies answer the question of who pays taxes in America—and who doesn’t pay enough taxes—the question of who gets the most government spending in return is almost always ignored.

Ultimately, Americans pay taxes in order to fund government spending programs created by lawmakers. And while Americans may be sharply divided over which government spending is useful and which is wasteful, one fact remains. In the long run, every dollar of government spending must be paid by taxes—either today or in the future—and those taxes ultimately come from the pocketbooks of American households.

Once we realize that taxes and spending are fundamentally linked, we’re led to an obvious question: who pays taxes in America, and who gets the dollars of government spending in return?

Just as taxes fall more heavily on some Americans, dollars of government spending don’t flow to all Americans equally. Government transfer payments such as aid to needy families, veterans’ benefits and Social Security payments benefit some Americans and not others. Similarly, government spending on public universities, airports and highways routinely benefit some Americans more than others.