April 9, 2025
Check out the full tax receipt here.
It’s Tax Day: Which federal programs cost more than a dozen eggs?
We’re hearing a lot these days about government efficiency and waste, but most people don’t have a great idea of what government services and programs actually cost in the first place. Each year, we release a tax receipt for Tax Day — but this year, it’s taken on even more meaning.
The Trump administration has enabled Elon Musk’s DOGE effort to cut programs and fire federal employees, and endorsed the congressional effort to cut Medicaid and other services to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy and corporate giveaways. These cuts have consequences in real lives and communities.
Meanwhile, lots of money goes to things like war and deportations that have no positive impact on peoples’ lives — and on which this administration plans to spend even more.
So, we compared taxes paid by the average taxpayer on a host of programs to the benchmark of our times — the price of a dozen eggs. In February 2025, the average price for a dozen eggs was $5.90. Below, find out how much you might have paid for weapons and war, mass deportations, and programs that are on the Trump-Musk chopping block — and which programs cost less than a dozen eggs.
In 2024, the average taxpayer paid:
$3,707 for weapons and war (628 dozen eggs), including $1,430 toward all Pentagon contractors (242 dozen eggs), and $5.82 for the Pentagon contracts with SpaceX, Elon Musk’s company (about a dozen eggs).
$98 for deportations, immigrant detentions and border control (16 dozen eggs), vs. just $26 for refugee assistance (four dozen eggs), which the current administration has frozen.
$149 for the National Institutes of Health, home of lifesaving medical and cancer research (25 dozen eggs); $39 for USAID, the international aid program that provides lifesaving food and medical help to millions (6 dozen eggs); and one penny for the Interagency Council on Homelessness that coordinates across agencies to end homelessness (no eggs). Each of these programs face elimination or severe cuts by President Trump and Elon Musk.
In 2024, the average taxpayer paid thousands of dollars for weapons and war that did nothing to improve lives, but did line the pockets of Pentagon contractors and enable wars and even genocide.
The $3,707 for weapons and war (628 dozen eggs) includes:
$2,929 for the Pentagon. That’s 496 dozen eggs. That includes:
$1,430 toward all Pentagon contractors. That’s the equivalent of 242 dozen eggs.
Just $610 for the troops, about 103 dozen eggs.
$388 for the top five Pentagon contractors. That’s the equivalent of 65 dozen eggs.
$43 for the F-35 jet fighter, a program plagued by problems that is far over budget. That’s the equivalent of seven dozen eggs.
$5.82 for the Pentagon contracts with SpaceX, Elon Musk’s company. That’s the equivalent of every taxpayer donating about a dozen eggs to Elon Musk.
$0.37 for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs in the Pentagon, which the Trump administration has dismantled. No eggs.
$115 for nuclear weapons, the equivalent of 19 dozen eggs.
$88 for aid to foreign militaries, the equivalent of 10 dozen eggs.
The president is enacting his mass deportation agenda targeting undocumented people with families, homes and lives in the U.S. — even some who had legal status. The legacy of the first Trump administration includes 1,360 immigrant children separated from their families who were never reunited.
In 2024, under the previous administration, the average taxpayer was already paying:
$98 for deportations, immigrant detentions and border control (16 dozen eggs), vs.
Just $26 for refugee assistance (four dozen eggs), which the current administration has frozen.
The Trump administration has endorsed a congressional plan that would require cuts to Medicaid, likely cuts to food stamps (SNAP), among many other cuts, all to enable higher spending on weapons, war, and deportations — and a tax cut that would save the bottom half of families about $1 per day, while the richest 0.1% would pocket $314,266 per year.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration and DOGE have spent a busy two months cutting and eliminating federal programs and firing federal employees. Many of the programs targeted by the Trump administration and DOGE for elimination, cuts, and firings have much smaller, or even miniscule, budgets.
In some cases, the the Trump and DOGE agenda has cut, eliminated, or threatened cuts to programs that cost the average taxpayer less than a dozen eggs, and sometimes less than the price of a single egg:
$1,823 for Medicaid, which insures 72 million people. That’s 309 dozen eggs, and still far less than the $3,707 (and 628 dozen eggs) for weapons and war.
$787 for the Department of Education, which provides funding to public schools, including more than 20 percent of school funding in Mississippi, South Dakota, Montana, Alaska, Arkansas, and North Carolina. That’s the equivalent of 133 dozen eggs.
$445 for food stamps (SNAP), which 40 million people depend on – the equivalent of 75 dozen eggs.
$149 for the National Institutes of Health, home of lifesaving medical and cancer research. That’s about 25 dozen eggs.
$120 for school lunch and nutrition programs, which served school lunch to 28 million children in 2023 (about 20 dozen eggs).
$39 for USAID, the international aid program that provides lifesaving food and medical help to millions. That’s 6 dozen eggs.
$25 for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the home of weather forecasts and extreme weather warnings. That’s about four dozen eggs.
$1.88 for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, home of NPR and PBS. That’s about four eggs.
$1.43 for museums and libraries in communities across the U.S. That’s about three eggs.
$1.03 for the National Labor Relations Board that enforces labor law against anti-union employers. That’s two eggs.
$0.41 for the Minority Business Development Administration, that helps small minority-owned businesses. No eggs.
One penny for the Interagency Council on Homelessness that coordinates across agencies to end homelessness. No eggs.
The Trump plan is to cut these programs while spending even more for mass deportations and war, and cutting taxes for the wealthiest among us.
