How much does the federal govt spen annually on all expenses
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Executive summary
The federal government’s total annual outlays for fiscal year (FY) 2025 are roughly $7.0 trillion, up about $301 billion (4%) from FY 2024 (CBO estimate reported by analysts) and producing a $1.8 trillion budget deficit for FY2025 [1] [2]. Year-to-date calendar reporting shows about $3.6 trillion spent in the first half of 2025 (Jan–Jun) and spending was $142 billion higher than the same period in 2024 [3].
1. What “annual spending” means — different measures, different numbers
There is no single number the public always means by “how much the federal government spends annually.” Analysts most often cite (a) federal outlays (money the government actually spends in a year), (b) the budget’s reported “spending” in historical tables, or (c) broader measures that include tax expenditures (revenue losses from deductions and credits). The Congressional Budget Office’s accounting of outlays puts FY2025 outlays at about $7.0 trillion, which is the figure cited by multiple budget analysts as federal spending for that year [1] [2]. The CBO also reports that tax expenditures — subsidies delivered through the tax code — equal about $2.3 trillion in 2025, a sum that is not counted as outlays but materially affects the fiscal picture [4].
2. The headline: about $7.0 trillion in FY2025 outlays
CBO-based reporting and subsequent analyst summaries show federal outlays rose to roughly $7.0 trillion in FY2025, a $301 billion (4%) increase over FY2024 [1]. That $7.0 trillion estimate is the most direct answer to “how much does the federal government spend annually” for the most recent fiscal year covered in these sources [1] [2].
3. Deficit and debt consequences — why the outlay number matters
Spending of that magnitude left the federal government with a FY2025 deficit of about $1.8 trillion, down slightly from the prior year but still large; CBO reports the FY2025 deficit totaled $1.8 trillion and federal debt held by the public rose to roughly 99.8% of GDP [2]. Interest on the national debt has become a major line item—reports note net interest exceeded $1 trillion and ranked as one of the largest federal expenditures [1].
4. What’s driving the increase: automatic programs and disaster/one-offs
Analysts and Treasury statements attribute much of the year-over-year spending rise to automatic growth in mandatory programs—Social Security, Medicare—and to episodic costs like disaster response and pandemic-era supplemental spending when applicable. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget highlighted that automatic growth in programs such as Social Security and Medicare was a major factor in the $142 billion year-to-date increase in calendar 2025 outlays (Jan–Jun) [3]. CBO and executive budget tables show mandatory spending constitutes the majority of federal outlays [5] [4].
5. Shorter-term snapshots: monthly and year-to-date reporting
If you prefer a running tally rather than a fiscal-year total, Treasury’s Monthly Treasury Statement and related trackers report outlays cumulatively. For example, Treasury-anchored reporting and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget note $3.6 trillion in federal outlays from January through June 2025, $142 billion higher than the first half of 2024 [3]. The Hamilton Project and Fiscal Data tools let users slice outlays by agency or program in near real time [6] [7].
6. Alternative viewpoints and limitations in the numbers
Different sources and measures yield different emphases. CBO and OMB outlays are broadly accepted but present slightly different timing and classification choices; the OMB historical tables and Treasury Monthly Statements can show variations in monthly timing and later revisions [8] [5]. Tax expenditures (estimated at $2.3 trillion in 2025) are large but not counted as outlays by CBO; including them materially changes how one frames “how much government spends” [4]. Some advocacy groups focus on year-to-date changes and borrowing levels rather than the single-year outlay total [9] [3].
7. How to verify or drill down further
For a definitive, disaggregated total by category or agency consult the Treasury’s Monthly Treasury Statement and Fiscal Data spending pages or USAspending.gov for transaction-level detail; the CBO’s publications give consolidated fiscal-year totals and projections; OMB’s Budget historical tables provide long-run context [5] [8] [2]. Available sources do not mention a single, universally agreed alternative single-line item that combines outlays plus tax expenditures as “federal spending” for FY2025.
Bottom line: the best-supported answer in current official and analyst reporting is that federal outlays for FY2025 were about $7.0 trillion, producing an FY2025 deficit of about $1.8 trillion, with important caveats depending on whether you include tax expenditures or use year-to-date calendar measures [1] [2] [4] [3].