As you rush to meet Tuesday’s filing deadline, you might wonder how your federal income tax dollars are spent. The CNBC Web site hosted a slideshow last week that breaks down a single dollar for 2007.

It goes like this: 42.2 cents for defense, 22.1 cents for health care, 10.1 cents for interest on the national debt, 8.7 cents for anti-poverty programs, 4.4 cents for education and work force training, 3.9 cents for government and law enforcement, 3.3 cents on housing assistance, 2.6 cents for energy and environmental programs and research, 1.5 cents for agriculture and transportation and a penny for foreign aid.

Keep in mind this is only the federal income tax and doesn’t include the payroll tax or any other sources of revenue collected by the feds. Still, it shows just how much we emphasize national defense over other priorities. Indeed, the Bush administration’s 2009 defense budget calls for more spending than in any year since World War II. That figure is adjusted for inflation, which shows that defense spending is at least keeping pace with that measure.

Meanwhile, there are myriad areas of federal spending that haven’t kept pace, including Medicare reimbursements, education spending (especially higher education), transportation, housing assistance, low-income heating assistance and environmental cleanups (Hanford’s budget was cut again).

The problem isn’t just the war. Only $171 billion of the $711 billion in Bush’s 2009 request is related to operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Much of the rest is for weapons programs for just about any “what if” scenario politicians and the Pentagon can imagine. The United States spends more than the next 45 highest spending countries in the world combined on defense. We account for 48 percent of military spending worldwide, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Many defenders of that spending are quick to call any effort to reduce it a slap in the face to the troops. But only a small fraction of it is spent to make their lives better. They’ve had their hellish overseas tours extended repeatedly, because the military is stretched so thin. And when they get home for good, they’ll find a veterans health care budget that hasn’t kept pace with inflation and a GI Bill that picks up only half the cost of a college education.

I don’t see how you can call that supporting the troops, but you sure can’t blame taxpayers.

Catch-15. On Thursday, President Bush announced that combat Army tours would be reduced from 15 months to 12 months to relieve the stress on troops and their families. Troops must’ve been elated when they heard the news. Well, not all of them, because it only applies to those deployed after Aug.1. For the rest, it’s still a 15-month slog.