What is the break down on US tax dollar expenditures in the past 5 years.
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Executive summary
Over the past five fiscal years the federal government shifted from pandemic-era emergency spending and large deficits toward still-elevated baseline outlays concentrated in health care and retirement programs, with Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security together consuming roughly a third of total federal spending while defense, non‑defense discretionary programs, and net interest comprised most of the remainder (FY2022 snapshot: government outlays $6.3 trillion; Medicare/Medicaid $1.339T; Social Security $1.2T; non‑defense discretionary $910B; Defense $751B; net interest $475B) [1]. Analysts and agencies diverge on longer‑run trajectories—CBO projects persistent trillion‑dollar deficits and rising debt as a share of GDP—so the short‑run “breakdown” looks stable in categories but volatile in totals because of policy responses to crises and interest-rate dynamics [2].
1. What “breakdown” means in practice: categories and the headline numbers
Federal spending is reported by major functions — Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid (health), defense, non‑defense discretionary (agencies and programs), net interest, and other mandatory programs — and totals rose to roughly $6.3 trillion in FY2022, about 25.1% of GDP, driven by health and retirement programs and by crisis-era measures earlier in the five‑year window [1]. The Treasury’s fiscal data and USAspending/USAFacts provide transaction-level and program-level detail for each fiscal year, but commonly cited aggregates are drawn from OMB/CBO/Treasury compilations that classify outlays into those major buckets [3] [4].
2. The big two: Social Security and health care dominate spending
Medicare and Medicaid together were roughly $1.339 trillion in FY2022 and Social Security about $1.2 trillion — together accounting for a sizable share of total outlays and reflecting demographic and health‑cost trends rather than year‑to‑year policy fights [1]. These programs are mandatory and grow with demographics and health prices, which is why long‑term projections from agencies like CBO highlight them as primary drivers of future debt pressures even though discretionary choices can move non‑health items faster [2].
3. Defense, discretionary programs, and net interest: the other major slices
Defense spending was about $751 billion in FY2022 and non‑defense discretionary spending — the money that runs most federal departments and agencies — was roughly $910 billion [1]. Net interest costs have surged as interest rates and debt levels rose, hitting about $475 billion in FY2022 and adding a non‑policy, market‑driven pressure on available fiscal space [1]. Debates over priorities often center on discretionary lines because they are annually appropriated, whereas defense and discretionary are frequent targets for partisan negotiation even as mandatory programs consume a bigger share [1] [2].
4. Deficits, totals, and year‑to‑year volatility: the pandemic and its aftershocks
The five‑year picture is distorted by 2020–2021 pandemic emergency spending that produced an unusually large deficit in FY2021 — about $2.8 trillion, or 12.4% of GDP — and by subsequent fiscal choices and macroeconomic shifts; CBO’s more recent outlook projects deficits in the neighborhood of $1.9 trillion for a current year and rising debt relative to GDP over the coming decade if policies do not change [5] [2]. Treasury’s monthly and annual datasets track actual outlays and receipts and show that while categorical shares (health, retirement) remain steady, aggregate outlays and interest costs are sensitive to short‑term crises, legislation, and interest‑rate movements [3].
5. Sources, limits, and political framing to beware of
Official sources — OMB historical tables, Treasury fiscal data, CBO reports and USAspending — provide the authoritative breakdowns and projections; secondary sites (e.g., aggregators and visualizers) draw from those datasets but can differ in presentation and assumptions [6] [3] [4]. Analysts and politicians often emphasize different slices to advance agendas — deficit hawks highlight net interest and mandatory growth, progressives stress the need for revenue to fund health and social programs, and defense advocates focus on security needs — so raw numbers must be read alongside policy context and the methodological choices behind categorization [2] [1]. Where the provided reporting is silent on a precise five‑year table for every fiscal year, the sources listed offer drilldowns (Treasury fiscal data, USAspending, OMB historical tables) for anyone who needs year‑by‑year line items [3] [7] [6].