An ABCNEWS.com poll released on April 17th found that Americans, on average, believe that 46 cents out of every dollar collected in federal taxes is wasted. Once again, this poll shows Americans to be a perceptive bunch.

Broken out in groups, 4% actually said zero cents were wasted out of each dollar grabbed by the federal government; 31% said between one cent and 30 cents were wasted; 32% said between 31 cents and 50 cents; 25% pegged waste between 51 cents and 99 cents; and another 4% labeled 100% as wasted.  To sum up, that means that 65% of adults see at minimum 31 cents out of each federal tax dollar collected being wasted. 

Interestingly, however, on average, the more education one acquires and the higher one's earnings, the less perceptive one becomes in terms of seeing government waste.  For example, those with a high school degree or less said, on average, that the government wastes 49 cents per tax dollar, while those with some college said 45 cents, and college graduates said 40 cents.  Meanwhile, those earning less than $75,000 annually, on average, said that the federal government wastes 47 cents per tax dollar, while those earning more than $75,000 pegged waste at 41 cents.