In his last transmission from the bridge, the captain of the Titanic was able to boast, "We've not only rearranged the deckchairs. We've inventoried them. I'm now able to proudly report that our sinking will put 2,000 Adirondack-style chairs under the icy waters, as well as 1,300 of the more adjustable chaise lounge variety! Pity. I rather liked those. "

No? Well, he might as well have. It's what we're doing.

On the face of it, the White House's new tax receipt tool seems like a great idea. Simply put in how much you paid in federal income taxes, social security taxes and medicare taxes, and the tool spits out a receipt that tells you how much of your money went to pay for certain government programs.

Assuming, for example, that you filed a married couple with $80,000 in income, two children and a modest savings rate of five percent going into a tax-deferred retirement plan, the receipt will tell you that you spent, among other things:

• $1,015.97 on national defense (just $231.78 actually reaching soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen and their families);
• $158 on caring for veterans;
• $108 on elementary, secondary and vocational education;
• $81.12 on environmental and energy programs;
• $27.04 on foreign aid, and;
• $15.45 responding to national disasters

It's a list that would shock a lot of people. The New York Times recently noted, for example, that "A 2010 survey asked Americans what percentage of the federal budget went to foreign aid. The median response was 25 percent. When asked what percentage would be appropriate, the answer was 10 percent." The actual answer was 0.7 percent – or, for our couple, $27.04.

Even more telling, in a recent CNN poll [PDF], Americans estimated that five percent of the federal budget went to PBS and NPR. The actual number, in that case, is slightly less than one one-hundredth of one percent -- too small to show up on the receipt. It would work out to about 99 cents for our couple if the receipt broke it out, but instead it's lumped into a category called "Additional Government Programs," which apparently includes everything from highway maintenance to the mortgage deduction to Elmo's salary. Our couple spent $92.71 on all of those things combined.

But wait a minute -- the mortgage deduction? That's being shown as an expense? That makes a certain amount of sense – but if we're counting tax deductions as expenses, we're counting all of them, right?

No.

The Christian Science Monitor notes, "The tool misleads by not recognizing hundreds of billions of dollars worth of other subsidies that are operated through the tax code."

It also makes some baldly political decisions. There's a category called "Job and Family Security" for instance. I don't think any of our members have a contract with the Department of Job and Family Security, so it seems to me that there are value judgments going into the labeling of categories here. It also shows your portion of payroll taxes, but not the portion your employer pays – and we all know that's a business expense they factor into your salary.

But the most glaring problem with the receipt? The last line. It reads "Net Interest." For our couple, it amounted to $215.86.

Interest on what? The national debt, of course.

Because taxes don't fund everything the federal government does. We borrow about a third of what we spend. Year after year. Racking up debts. Never paying anything more than the interest on it.

The tax receipt could easily lull you into believing that we spend what we make...but we spend a lot more than we make, and that last line is the only hint.

Our ocean is debt. We're sinking. And we've created a false inventory of the stuff we'll take with us. I'm not sure it's helpful to know that more Adirondack chairs than chaise lounges slipped below the waterline, but here's your proof.

It's the illusion of transparency, hidden behind political posturing.

Ironically, this effort comes as a group of real transparency efforts -- websites like USASpending.gov and Data.gov -- are scheduled to go dark for lack of funding in a matter of weeks.

A receipt for your taxes is not an entirely bad idea. There's an effort underway in both the Senate and the House to require the government to print one and mail it to you after you pay each year. Those reporters we fund at NPR note, "We could see the written receipt next year around tax time."

There's a lot we could do with such a thing. I'd probably take mine, cross out the numbers, write in a set I'd prefer, and mail it to my Congressional representatives. But it should come after funding of the real transparency tools -- the ones that aren't politicized.

Jeff White is Deltek's VP, GovWin, the network that helps government contractors win new business every day. He can be reached at jeffwhite@govwin.com, or follow him on Twitter @Jeff_White1347.