Of every dollar the federal government spends ($2.14 trillion in all):
- 11 cents go to Medicare
- 22 cents for Social Security
- 4 cents for other disability and retirement programs
37 cents for senior and disabled Americans
- 10 cents for health in all its forms other than Medicare (research, Medicaid)
- 2½ cents for unemployment compensation
- 3½ cents for housing and food assistance
- and another nearly 5 cents for other income security programs
21 cents, mostly for the unfortunate
- just more than 17 cents go to national defense
- and nearly another 3 cents go for veterans benefits
20 cents for national defense and veterans
- 1 cent goes for international affairs including foreign aid
- 1 cent goes to science and space
- a little less than 1 cent is for farm subsidies (80%) and other agricultural programs (20%)
- nearly 1½ cents go for parks, dams, forests and other environmental programs including EPA
- 3 cents are spent on transportation (59% on the ground, the rest for air and water transportation)
- 1 cent is for community development and disaster relief
- 2½ cents are for education
- and another 1½ cents for training programs
- not quite 2 cents go for justice and law enforcement
- and 1 more cent for the President, Congress, personnel, printing money, property management, archives, etc.
less than 15 cents for most federal “government” programs other than defense
- and lastly 7½ cents for interest on the debt