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Budget of the United States Government
Definition: Every year in February the President of the United States is required to send to Congress a budget request for the fiscal year that begins the following October.
FY02 Federal Budget also: Revenue Budget
Recent and budgeted headline federal budget numbers in the FY02 Budget including overall spending, deficit, and debt.
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FY02 Federal Budget: Spending by Function
Recent and budgeted federal spending in the FY02 Budget
for major federal spending functions.
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Click for Budget Detail
Notes
Data Sources: Federal Spending from Budget of the United States Government.
For a discussion of the sources of the government spending data used here read How We Got the Data for usgovernmentspending.com.
Budget Updates: The president’s budget is typically published each year in February.
Other budgets:
FY86 FY87 FY88 FY89 FY90 FY91 FY92 FY93 FY94 FY95 FY96 FY97 FY98 FY99 FY00 FY01 FY02 FY03 FY04 FY05 FY06 FY07 FY08 FY09 FY10 FY11 FY12 FY13 FY14 FY15 FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22 FY23 FY24 FY25 FY26
Federal Budget in History
in dollars | in percent GDP |
1863 - Gross federal debt exceeded $1 billion for first time. 1865 - Federal spending exceeded $1 billion for first time. 1914 - Federal spending exceeded $1 billion for second time. 1918 - Gross federal debt exceeded $10 billion for first time. 1921 - Bureau of the Budget established by Budget and Accounting Act. 1943 - Gross federal debt exceeded $100 billion for first time. 1970 - Office of Management and Budget created. 1982 - Gross federal debt exceeded $1 trillion for first time. 1987 - Federal spending exceeded $1 trillion for first time. 2009 - Gross federal debt exceeded $10 trillion for first time. | 1792 - Federal debt at 35 percent GDP. 1795 - Federal spending at two percent GDP. 1854 - Federal debt at one percent GDP. 1865 - Federal spending at 13 percent GDP at height of Civil War. 1867 - Federal debt at 32 percent GDP after Civil War. 1907 - Federal spending at 2.2 percent GDP. 1913 - Federal debt at 7.5 percent GDP. 1919 - Federal spending at 24 percent GDP at height of World War I. 1919 - Federal debt at 35 percent GDP after World War I. 1929 - Federal spending at 3.7 percent GDP. 1929 - Federal debt at 16 percent GDP. 1945 - Federal spending at 48 percent GDP at height of World War II. 1946 - Federal debt at 122 percent GDP after World War II. 1951 - Federal spending at 14.4 percent GDP. 1981 - Federal debt at 32 percent GDP. 1982 - Federal spending at 23 percent GDP. 1995 - Federal debt at 66 percent GDP. 2000 - Federal spending at 18 percent GDP. 2009 - Federal spending at 24 percent GDP. 2011 - Federal debt at 97 percent GDP. |
Federal Budget Process
This Budget of the United States Government starts the annual “budget process” that ends when Congress passes and the president signs the annual appropriations bills or continuing resolutions to fund the federal government for another fiscal year.
On this page you can see headline numbers for budgeted spending (or “outlays”), deficits, and also for major spending functions. Click here for details of outlays by function for the next five years. Click here for budget authority by function for the next five years. Click here for Social Security. Click here for Medicare.
Suggested Video: All About Welfare
Top Spending Requests:
Find DEFICIT stats and history.
Get WELFARE stats and history.
US BUDGET overview and pie chart.
Find NATIONAL DEBT today.
DOWNLOAD spending data or debt data.
See FEDERAL BUDGET breakdown and estimated vs. actual.
MILITARY SPENDING details, budget and history.
ENTITLEMENT SPENDING history.
See BAR CHARTS of spending, debt.
Check STATE spending: CA NY TX FL and compare.
See SPENDING ANALYSIS briefing.
See SPENDING HISTORY briefing.
Take a COURSE at Spending 101.
Make your own CUSTOM CHART.
Spending Data Sources
Spending data is from official government sources.
- Federal spending data since 1962 comes from the president’s budget.
- All other spending data comes from the US Census Bureau.
Gross Domestic Product data comes from US Bureau of Economic Analysis and measuringworth.com.
Detailed table of spending data sources here.
Medicare breakdown here; Medicaid breakdown here.
Federal spending data begins in 1792.
State and local spending data begins in 1820.
State and local spending data for individual states begins in 1957.
Gross Federal Debt
| Debt Now: | $40,388,317,675,071.91 | Debt 2/2020: | $23,409,959,150,243.63 |
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Data Sources for 2008:
GDP, GO: GDP, GO Sources
Federal: Fed. Budget: Hist. Tables 3.2, 5.1, 7.1
State and Local: State and Local Gov. Finances
> data sources for other years
> data update schedule.
Blog
US Budget Deficit, Receipts, Outlays for FY 2026
On October 15, 2026, the US Treasury reported in its Monthly Treasury Statement (and xlsx) for September that the federal deficit for FY 2025 ending September 30, 2026, was $1,99 billion. Here are the numbers, including total receipts, total outlays, and deficit compared with the numbers projected in the FY 2026 federal budget published in February 2025:
| Federal Finances FY 2026 Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Budget billions | Outcome billions | ||
| Receipts | $5,873 | $5,403 | |
| Outlays | $7,419 | $7,396 | |
| Deficit | $1,547 | $1,993 | |
The Monthly Treasury Statement includes "Table 4: Receipts of the United States Government, September 2026 and Other Periods." This table of receipts by source is used for usgovernmentspending.com to post details of federal receipt actuals for FY 2025. usdgovernmentspending.com obtains the data for outlays and receipts from apis at fiscaldata.treasury.gov.
This MTS report on FY 2026 actuals is a problem for usgovernmentspending.com because this site uses Historical Table 3.2--Outlays by Function and Subfunction from the Budget of the United States as its basic source for federal subfunction outlays. But the Monthly Treasury Statement only includes "Table 9. Summary of Receipts by Source, and Outlays by Function of the U.S. Government, September 2025 and Other Periods". Subfunction amounts don't get reported until the FY28 budget in February 2027. Until then usgovernmentspending.com estimates actual outlays by "subfunction" for FY 2026 by factoring subfunction budgeted amounts for FY26 by the ratio between relevant actual and budgeted "function" amounts where actual outlays by subfunction cannot be gleaned from the Monthly Treasury Statement.
On August 7, 2026 we updated the state and local spending and revenue for FY 2024 using the new Census Bureau ...
On July 2, 2026 we updated the state and local spending and revenue for FY 2024 using the new Census Bureau S ...
> blog
Budget News
President’s FY 2025 Budget Release Scheduled for March 11
Although the FY 2024 appropriations process is not yet resolved
Biden to Release Budget March 9
will press McCarthy On Default Risk - Bloomberg
Biden to Release 2023 Budget Request on March 28
how the administration expects to spend money for priorities including aid to Ukraine and the continuing effort to fight the coronavirus pandemic, as well as legislative proposals such as increased funding for community policing programs, cancer research, and mental health education.
> archive
Spend Links
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presented by Christopher Chantrill