What are the biggest federal programs?

The three biggest federal programs are health care (including Medicare and Medicaid), pensions (including Social Security), and Defense.

US Federal Budget Analyst

FY09 Federal Budget Spending Estimates
for Fiscal Years 2008 - 2013

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$ billion nom$ trillion nom$ million nomInflation$ bln 2017$2017 per cap$2017/cap/daypercent GDPpercent GOpct series Units: By default, values are displayed in billions of nominal dollars. By using a dropdown control in the table heading you can select millions of dollars, percent of GDP, percent of federal total, percent of overall total, dollars per capita of population, and thousand dollars per capita of population. FY 27* Fed BudgetFY 26 Fed BudgetFY 25 Fed BudgetFY 24 Fed BudgetFY 23 Fed BudgetFY 22 Fed BudgetFY 21 Fed BudgetFY 20 Fed BudgetFY 19 Fed BudgetFY 18 Fed BudgetFY 17 Fed BudgetFY 16 Fed BudgetFY 15 Fed BudgetFY 14 Fed BudgetFY 13 Fed BudgetFY 12 Fed BudgetFY 11 Fed BudgetFY 10 Fed BudgetFY 09 Fed BudgetFY 08 Fed BudgetFY 07 Fed BudgetFY 06 Fed BudgetFY 05 Fed BudgetFY 04 Fed BudgetFY 03 Fed BudgetFY 02 Fed BudgetFY 01 Fed BudgetFY 00 Fed BudgetFY 99 Fed BudgetFY 98 Fed BudgetFY 97 Fed BudgetFY 96 Fed BudgetFY 95 Fed BudgetFY 94 Fed BudgetFY 93 Fed BudgetFY 92 Fed BudgetFY 91 Fed BudgetFY 90 Fed BudgetFY 89 Fed BudgetFY 88 Fed BudgetFY 87 Fed BudgetFY 86 Fed Budget US Budget Year: By default, the table displays budgeted and estimated numbers from the most recent US Federal Budget submitted to the Congress by the president. But you can look at numbers from other US Federal Budgets using this dropdown control. No Pie Chart2008 chart2009 chart2010 chart2011 chart2012 chart2013 chart US Budget Year: By default, the table displays budgeted and estimated numbers from the most recent US Federal Budget submitted to the Congress by the president. But you can look at numbers from other US Federal Budgets using this dropdown control. full screen
	US Federal Government FY 09 Budget Estimated Outlays in $ trillion nominal
-5yr -1yr   as of Winter 2008   +1yr +5yr

				Estimated Outlays from US Federal FY 09 Budget
Change View: people old functions radical census programs altprog oldprog COFOG Change Data View: The default view of spending data is by function. But you can also view data by program or the UN COFOG classification system.				FY 2008  Outlays	FY 2009  Outlays	FY 2010  Outlays	FY 2011  Outlays	FY 2012  Outlays	FY 2013  Outlays
[+]	Pensions			0.66	0.70	0.73	0.77	0.81	0.89
[+]	Health Care			0.68	0.71	0.74	0.79	0.81	0.88
[+]	Education			0.10	0.10	0.10	0.10	0.10	0.11
[+]  Charts: Click on a to display a bar of data in a row or column of this table. Click on to display a time-series chart of data in a row. [+] Drill-down: Click on the [+] to drill down to more detailed numbers. For federal spending line items (but not revenue) you can drill down three levels to view about 4,000 items of spending at the “agency code” level.	Defense			0.73	0.80	0.72	0.70	0.70	0.71
[+]	Welfare			0.28	0.29	0.29	0.30	0.29	0.30
[+]	Protection			0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05
[+]	Transportation			0.08	0.08	0.07	0.07	0.07	0.07
[+]	General Government			0.02	0.02	0.03	0.02	0.02	0.02
[+]	Other Spending			0.09	0.09	0.07	0.07	0.07	0.07
[+]	Interest			0.24	0.26	0.28	0.29	0.30	0.30
[+]	Balance			0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
[+]	Total Spending			2.93	3.11	3.09	3.17	3.22	3.40
[+]	Federal Deficit			0.41	0.41	0.16	0.09	-0.05	-0.03
[+]	Gross Public Debt			9.65	10.41	10.95	11.46	11.87	12.28
Outlays: Pie Chart: Select a pie chart you wish to display. You can create a pie chart for federal, state and local, and overall spending/revenue. b - budgeted estimate in US FY09 budget e - estimated by usgovernmentspending.com Data Sources for 2008: Federal: Fed. Budget: Hist. Tables 3.2, 5.1, 7.1 Data Sources for 2013: Federal: Fed. Budget: Hist. Tables 3.2, 5.1, 7.1

Spending Definitions

Notes

The table shows overall budgeted federal outlays for major functions for the next five years, as estimated in the historical tables in the current presidential budget.

You can change the budget to be analyzed or drill down to view more detailed spending information.

But. For the “default” and “programs” views, we have extracted data from the Public Budget Database to expand Social Security and Medicare beyond the single line item each gets in Table 3.2. The Public Budget Database starts publishing six years of estimated outlays with the FY10 budget, so this page will only provide a full six years of estimated outlays starting with the FY10 budget.

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.

Download Federal Budget Data for 2008-2013

Tab-delimited Table

Here is the budget table with columns tab-delimited. You can cut and paste directly into a spreadsheet:

You can copy all the text in the textbox by clicking your cursor in the box. Then press Ctrl-A and Ctrl-C and paste the text into your spreadsheet.

US Federal Government Spending Fiscal Year 2008 - 2013 Estimated Outlays in $ trillion nom Year FY 2008 Outlays FY 2009 Outlays FY 2010 Outlays FY 2011 Outlays FY 2012 Outlays FY 2013 Outlays Pensions 0.66 b 0.70 b 0.73 b 0.77 b 0.81 b 0.89 b Health Care 0.68 b 0.71 b 0.74 b 0.79 b 0.81 b 0.88 b Education 0.10 b 0.10 b 0.10 b 0.10 b 0.10 b 0.11 b Defense 0.73 b 0.80 b 0.72 b 0.70 b 0.70 b 0.71 b Welfare 0.28 b 0.29 b 0.29 b 0.30 b 0.29 b 0.30 b Protection 0.05 b 0.05 b 0.05 b 0.05 b 0.05 b 0.05 b Transportation 0.08 b 0.08 b 0.07 b 0.07 b 0.07 b 0.07 b General Government 0.02 b 0.02 b 0.03 b 0.02 b 0.02 b 0.02 b Other Spending 0.09 b 0.09 b 0.07 b 0.07 b 0.07 b 0.07 b Interest 0.24 b 0.26 b 0.28 b 0.29 b 0.30 b 0.30 b Balance 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Total Spending 2.93 b 3.11 b 3.09 b 3.17 b 3.22 b 3.40 b Federal Deficit 0.41 b 0.41 b 0.16 b 0.09 b -0.05 b -0.03 b Gross Public Debt 9.65 e 10.41 e 10.95 e 11.46 e 11.87 e 12.28 e Legend: b - budgeted estimate in US FY09 budget e - estimated by usgovernmentspending.com Data Sources for 2008: Federal: <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/budget/2009/BUDGET-2009-TAB Fed. Budget: Hist. Tables 3.2, 5.1, 7.1 Data Sources for 2013: Federal: <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/budget/2009/BUDGET-2009-TAB Fed. Budget: Hist. Tables 3.2, 5.1, 7.1 source: usgovernmentspending.com

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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.