Cited Charts
Where Your Tax Dollar Actually Goes
Episode 04 · 11:34 · watch
Function, not department. Table 9 sorts spending by what the money was for, not by which department signed the cheque. “Health” here is mostly Medicaid; Medicare has its own line. Comparing either to a department budget will not match.
The figures used
| Fiscal year 2026, ended 30 September 2026 | Value |
|---|---|
| Total outlays, fiscal year 2026 | $7,395.8 bn |
| Total receipts, fiscal year 2026 | $5,403.3 bn |
| Deficit | $1,992.5 bn |
| Share of spending covered by revenue | 73.1 % |
| Social Security | $1,667.1 bn · 22.5 % |
| Medicare | $1,072.6 bn · 14.5 % |
| Net Interest | $1,051.8 bn · 14.2 % |
| Health | $1,025.6 bn · 13.9 % |
| National Defense | $965.2 bn · 13.1 % |
| Income Security | $694.2 bn · 9.4 % |
| Veterans Benefits and Services | $416.2 bn · 5.6 % |
| Transportation | $142.9 bn · 1.9 % |
| Education, Training, Employment, and Social Services | $107.6 bn · 1.5 % |
| Administration of Justice | $109.9 bn · 1.5 % |
| — receipts — | |
| Individual Income Taxes | $2,845.5 bn · 52.7 % |
| Employment and General Retirement | $1,754.3 bn · 32.5 % |
| Corporation Income Taxes | $381.4 bn · 7.1 % |
| Customs Duties | $173.2 bn · 3.2 % |
| Excise Taxes | $106.0 bn · 2.0 % |
| Estate and Gift Taxes | $38.7 bn · 0.7 % |
| Net interest, 2015 | $223.3 bn |
| Net interest, 2026 | $1,051.8 bn |
| Growth factor since 2015 | 4.71× |
| National defence, growth factor | 1.63× |
| Year interest passed defence | 2024 |
| Interest per day | $2.88 bn |
| Interest as a share of all revenue | 19.5 % |
| …in 2015 | 6.9 % |
Table 9 is hierarchical. Sub-items sit inside the totals above them, so adding every line counts the same money twice. Only same-level items are compared here, and the five largest outlay functions are shown.
Sources
- U.S. Department of the Treasury — Monthly Treasury Statement, Table 9 Receipts and outlays of the United States government by function, fiscal years 2015-2026. api.fiscaldata.treasury.gov/services/api/fiscal_service/v1/accounting/mts/mts_table_9. Retrieved 11 November 2026.
- A note on the fiscal year The US federal year runs 1 October to 30 September. Every annual figure here is taken from the September statement, which carries the full-year total in its fiscal-year-to-date column. Fiscal 2026 is complete.
- A note on double counting Table 9 is hierarchical. Sub-items such as 'Employment and General Retirement' sit inside the totals above them; adding every line would count the same money twice. Only same-level items are compared here.
Data files
As used in the episode — the charts are generated from exactly this.
mts-tabelle9-fy2015-2026.json 12 fiscal years, receipts and outlays by functionWhat these numbers do not say
- This is NET interest — interest the government receives is already subtracted, so the gross figure is larger.
- Function is not department: 'Health' here is mostly Medicaid, and Medicare has its own line, so neither matches a department budget.
- These are cash flows for one year, not a measure of future obligations. Promises already made do not appear until they are paid.
- And a deficit is not automatically a problem. Whether it is depends on what the money bought and on what the economy does next — neither of which is in this table.
Corrections
None yet. Errors reported in the comments are corrected here and noted with the date.
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