By Joseph Jankowski | PFW.news

In 2017, the American people spent more money on taxes than on clothing and food combined, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s data on consumer expenditures released this month.

“Consumer units” (which include families, financially independent individuals, and people living in a single household who share expenses) spent an average of $9,562 on food and clothing in 2017.

At the same time, they were forced to pay $16,749 on federal, state and local taxes.

According to the BLS, the average 2017 tax bill included $7,819 in federal income taxes; $2,098 in state and local income taxes; and $51 in other taxes. The agency rounded up the total of income taxes paid to $9,967.

$4,717 in Social Security taxes were also paid, along with $2,065 in property taxes, bringing the total average tax bill for the year to $16,749.

The BLS data shows that the average consumer unit spent $7,729 on food in 2017 and $1,833 on apparel and services for a total of $9,562.

This means that the 2017 average expenditure of $9,917 for income taxes alone surpassed the amount spent on the essentials of clothing and food.

While American’s had their income siphoned off to uncle sam, rather than have it go to their local grocer or retailer, the BLS data shows that average 2017 overall tax bill of $16,749 was still lower than the average 2016 overall tax bill of $17,153.

As with 2017, in 2016 American’s also spent more on taxes ($17,153)  than clothing and food combined ($9,006).

With the United States federal budget deficit currently reaching comical levels – the August deficit of $214.1 billion pushed the deficit for the first 11 months of the budget year 2018 to $898.1 billion, 33 percent higher than the same period a year ago – it doesn’t seem to be a stretch to say that not before long, Americans will be paying more for government than EVERYTHING else combined.

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Joseph Jankowski is a contributor to PlanetFreeWill.com. His works have been published by globally recognizable news sites like Infowars.com, ZeroHedge.com, GlobalResearch.ca, and ActivistPost.com.

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