Visit www.louise.house.gov for a Personalized Federal Taxpayer Receipt

Rochester, NY – Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (NY-28) today invited Western New Yorkers to see how their tax dollars are being spent and announced that her office has made available a new tool on her website that provides a personalized Federal Taxpayer Receipt.

"So often we talk about federal programs in the billions and trillions of dollars but it can be difficult to understand what that means to each of us as taxpayers. The Federal Taxpayer Receipt is an excellent way for every taxpayer to understand what they're contributing to our national defense, education and health care programs, science and technology research and other important programs," said Slaughter. "Just like every other transaction, you can now get a receipt to see how your tax dollars are being spent and I invite everyone to visit my website, www.louise.house.gov, and learn more."

No personal information is required to calculate your personal Federal Taxpayer Receipt; simply the dollar amount of the Social Security, Medicare and income tax paid this year.

The federal taxpayer receipt was developed by the White House.

Last week, President Obama said, "we think it's a terrific way for people to get information about where their tax dollars are actually going because, as many of you know, sometimes people's perspectives in terms of how much of their tax dollar goes to foreign aid versus education versus defense versus interest on the national debt, understandably people don't always have a perspective on that. And we think that the more people know the better they will be able to judge the debate that is going to be taking place in Washington with respect to how do we pay down the deficit, how do we reform the tax system, and so forth."

The Federal Taxpayer Receipt on Slaughter's Website

2011 Federal Spending by Category

Data and graph courtesy of the White House