How to Read the US Federal Spending Breakdown
Learn how OMB groups federal spending, why borrowing and negative outlays matter, and how to compare fiscal years without double counting.
The federal government spends money on Social Security, health care, defense, interest, and many other purposes. The US federal spending explorer lets you open each category and compare actual spending across fiscal years.
Spending is funded by receipts and borrowing
A spending breakdown is not a receipt for your personal tax payment. Federal receipts include income taxes, payroll taxes, and other sources. When spending exceeds receipts, the government reports a budget deficit.
The explorer shows receipts, net outlays, and the deficit from the same edition of OMB Historical Table 1.1, so the headline figures use a consistent source.
Categories describe the purpose of spending
OMB groups outlays by function and subfunction. These are spending purposes, not simply departments. Health and Medicare are separate functions. Veterans’ medical care is classified under veterans’ benefits. Keeping those distinctions avoids double counting.
Federal grants to states appear in federal spending, but states’ and local governments’ own spending is outside this explorer. Federal education spending is therefore not the total cost of education in America.
Why can spending be negative?
Net outlays include offsets. Receipts, recoveries, or credit program adjustments can reduce a category’s total and can sometimes exceed its positive spending. A negative value does not automatically mean a program was shut down.
The treemap draws positive amounts and lists negative adjustments separately. Open the offsets section beneath the treemap and select an adjustment to inspect it. Percentages are shares of net federal spending, so positive categories can sum to more than 100% before offsets.
Compare years carefully
The federal fiscal year begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The explorer uses completed years labeled actual in the OMB source, excluding estimates. Historical figures may be revised in later editions.
Dollar trends are nominal. An increase in dollars can reflect price changes as well as changes in activity. It does not, by itself, measure how much more service a program provided.
Start with the spending overview, choose a category, and open its source details to see the exact amount and the corresponding OMB row.
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