Grammy-nominated rapper Cardi B makes “money moves” — and she wants to know what the government does with them.
The 25-year-old singer, who sang in her hit “Bodak Yellow” that she makes money move, said in a recent Instagram FB, -3.34% video that the government is taking 40% of her income and she wants to knows what it does with that money. “When you donate to a kid from a foreign country, they give you updates on what they’re doing with your donation,” she said.
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She mentioned a few places where her taxes don’t seem to be going, in her opinion: Her home town — New York City — and prisons. “I’m from New York and the streets is always dirty, we were voted dirtiest city in America,” she said. Prisoners only get a couple of pairs of underwear and one jumpsuit for months at a time, she added.
The national state prison population has jumped 700% since the 1970s, according to data from the Vera Institute of Justice. The annual cost per inmate in New York City was $96,232 in 2014, up from $67,565 in 2007, according to the City Comptroller’s office. That’s more than three times the $30,619 average cost of incarceration for federal inmates in 2014. U.S. prisons are at more than 100% occupant capacity, the World Prison Brief found.
So where do our taxes actually go? In 2017, the biggest share of federal tax dollars went toward social safety net programs like Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, with defense spending representing the second biggest chunk. In her home state of New York, nearly half of all tax money went toward public education and Medicaid.
Also see: Beware, the IRS is looking for these red flags this tax season
Cardi B has talked taxes to her audience before. In December, she posted a video telling people who owe her money to hold it for the following year so she wouldn’t have to pay taxes on it. The Bronx-born rapper once worked as a stripper, a job that she says helped her become financially independent enough to leave an abusive relationship.