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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.

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FY12 Federal Budget   also: Revenue Budget  

Recent and budgeted headline federal budget numbers in the FY12 Budget including overall spending, deficit, and debt.

$ billion nom
2010201120122013201420152016
  Spending3,4573,8193,7293,7713,9774,1904,468 
  Federal Deficit1,2941,6451,101768645607649 
  Other Borrowing35930277329366408401 
  Gross Federal Debt13,52915,47616,65417,75118,76119,77620,825 
source: actual budgeted estimated

Click for Budget Detail

FY12 Federal Budget: Spending by Function

Recent and budgeted federal spending in the FY12 Budget
for major federal spending functions.

$ billion nom
201020112012
  Pensions749793806 
  Health Care821882866 
  Education140130121 
  Defense847965925 
  Welfare502496432 
source: actual budgeted

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

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.

Source: Budget of the United States Government.

Suggested Video: All About Debt

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.

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:  $37,467,893,078,454.54
Debt 2/2020:$23,409,959,150,243.63

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Data Sources for 2009_2016:

Sources for 2009:

GDP, GO: GDP, GO Sources
Federal: Fed. Budget: Hist. Tables 3.2, 5.1, 7.1
State and Local: State and Local Gov. Finances

Sources for 2016:

GDP, GO: GDP, GO Sources
Federal: Fed. Budget: Hist. Tables 3.2, 5.1, 7.1
State and Local: State and Local Gov. Finances
'Guesstimated' by projecting the latest change in reported spending forward to future years

> data sources for other years
> data update schedule.

Blog

State and Local Finances for 2023

On September 11, 2025 we updated the state and local spending and revenue for FY 2023 using the new Census Bureau State and Local Government Finances summaries for FY 2023 released on July 31, 2025.  (See also Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances). The release includes state and local spending for the United States as a whole and the 50 individual states and the District of Columbia.

State and local spending and revenue for FY2023 are now actual historical spending as reported by the Census Bureau. In addition, the Census Bureau published updated tables for 2021 and 2022.

We have updated the "guesstimated" state and local finances for FY2024-30 as indicated in our "guesstimate" blog entries.

We have also updated data for individual local government units with data for 2023. 

Beginning in 2022 the Census Bureau has changed the value for Line 56 Direct Expenditure and Line 7 General Revenue from own sources, as follows:

We have decided to end our publication of non-insurance trust cash and security holdings.

However, to keep the time series at usgovernmentspending.com consistent, we have decided to add insurance-trust values back into Line 56 and Line 7 values. 

State Spending for 2023
In March 2025 the US Census Bureau released data on state finances for FY 2023 here and  ...

Agency Debt Update for 2024
On June 24, 2025, usgovernmentspending.com updated its data for agency debt from the Federal Reserve Board database. Data is now available for the period 1945-2024. You can see our Agency Debt page ...

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Christopher Chantrill.

Email here.


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