Following the benjamins..

ePluribis Media

The Consolidated Federal Funds Report includes a variety of ways to look at how the government spends money, including per-capita breakouts from the federal down to the state, city and county level. That's not all, either:

It is also possible to look at federal spending as it relates to specific government agencies. Keffer breaks out spending among the top five states at one of the biggest federal agencies: "Defense Department spending totaled $374 billion in 2005, an 8 percent increase over 2004, and was highest in California, Virginia, Texas, Florida and Maryland."

Why is this, or any other financial report, significant? Because they help people take a look under the hood and see how the money flows, where it goes, who gets it and (theoretically) what gets done with it.

Given our government's propensity for mishandling the monies entrusted to it, and the use of same for propaganda, having more than one potential source of information is critical, particularly now. The BushCheney Republicans in the US Government aren't simply trying to improve the image of the nation -- they are actively trying to influence media coverage, essentially gaming the system for their advantage.

Here of the report. This is pretty startling (page 7):

• Retirement and disability ($703 billion)
• Other direct payments ($500 billion)
• Grants ($470 billion)
• Procurement contracts ($381 billion)
• Salaries and wages ($232 billion)
• Direct loans ($29 billion)
• Guaranteed or insured loans ($165 billion)
• Insurance ($859 billion)

Insurance is the top dollar line item???