Where do American taxes go?

Taxes for Social Security and Medicare go directly to financing those programs. Those are called “mandatory programs”.

The rest, which is largely supported by income tax, although other taxes such as import tariffs go into the mix as well, go towards what are called “discretionary” programs. Social Security and Medicare have to be funded every year by law, but all other government programs need congressional authorization every single year.

As you can see, the biggest slice is defence, which is over half of discretionary spending. The next biggest chunk is paying for the politicians, their offices, their staff and their expenses. Note that if you zeroed this out you would not get very great savings. Moreover, most people who take those jobs take a pay cut to do so, and politicians have to actually pay to get them.

Now, mandatory spending is about twice discretionary spending, but remember none of that money comes out of income taxes - they’re funded by specific taxes

Mandatory spending is about 48% Social Security, and about 52% Health (Medicare and Medicaid).

While we’re on the topic of health care

The United States Government spends about $1 trillion on health care every year, and the states chip in another $800 billion or thereabouts. On a per person basis, that’s more than any other nation in the world. Nevertheless, Americans chip in another $1.8 trillion a year on private insurance and personal expenditures. They get worse outcomes compared to other countries too.