Question

Using the pie chart in your reading, what percentage of our total tax dollars is used by the federal government to fund the Social Security and Medicare programs?

Answer 1

Answer:

32.42% or $1.15 trillion

Explanation:

Working with the Pie Chart of Federal Government expenditures from the fiscal year 2010(figure is attached as an image), we have the following:

Total expenditure = $3.55 trillion,

Social security (sector) = 19.63% or 0.1963,

Medicare (sector) = 12.79% or 0.1279

Social security + Medicare (sectors) = (19.63 + 12.79) % = 32.42%

Together, Social security & Medicare account for 32.42% of the Federal government's total expenditure

Amount spent on Social security & Medicare = Sector percentage * Total expenditure

Amount = 32.42% * 3.55 * 10¹² = 0.3242 * 3.55 * 10¹²

Amount = $1.15091 trillion

Amount ≈ $1.15 trillion

Therefore, Social security and Medicare account for about $1.15 trillion of the total expenditure