The Federal Budget: an Overview

"The federal budget is a measure of how much the federal government spends and how much revenue it takes in. Typically, annual budgetary data is broken up into fiscal years, which run from October 1 to September 30..^[1]

In fiscal year 2023, the US spent $6.16 trillion on public programs and generated $4.47 trillion in revenue.

What is the federal deficit?

The federal government runs a deficit when it spends more than it takes in as revenue. In 2023, the annual federal deficit was $1.69 trillion. To fund deficits, the government borrows money by selling assets, and this borrowing creates debt..

When the government takes in more than it spends, this is a budget surplus. This last happened in 2001. There’s been a deficit in each fiscal year since.

What is federal debt?

The national debt is the total amount that the federal government owes to investors who it has borrowed from. Effectively, it is a summation of all the federal deficits and surpluses over the country’s history, plus the interest accumulated on that debt over time.
 
As of June 14, 2024, the national debt totaled $34.7 trillion

As a percentage of gross domestic product, the national debt has been historically high in recent years. In 2020, that ratio reached its highest point since 1946.

What does the US government spend money on?

The largest spending categories in the $6.16 trillion federal budget in 2023 were Social Security at 22% of the budget ($1.35 trillion), national defense and veteran support at 18% ($1.13 trillion), transfers to states at 18% ($1.09 trillion), and Medicare at 14% ($848 billion)...
Federal Budget 

The Budget of the U.S. Government : Fiscal Year 2023

"THE BUDGET MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT

To the Congress of the United States

There is no greater testament to the grit and resilience of the American people than the extraordinary progress we have made together over the last year

America entered 2021 in the midst of a devastating health crisis, on the heels of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. We ended 2021 having created over 6.5 million new jobs, the most our Nation has ever recorded in a single year. Our economy grew at a rate of 5.7 percent, the strongest growth in nearly 40 years. As of February, the unemployment rate has fallen from 6.4 percent when I took office to 3.8 percent—the fastest decline in recorded history. We are bringing everyone along, and leaving no one behind; child poverty is projected to reach the lowest level ever recorded, while long-term unemployment, youth unemployment, and Black and Hispanic unemployment have all dropped at record rates. Though family budgets are still tight, millions more Americans are earning paychecks today—and families have more money in their pockets than they did a year ago.

This progress was no accident. It was a direct result of the new economic vision for America I ran on—to build our economy from the bottom up and the middle out.

That vision was reflected in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which lifted our Nation out of crisis; fueled our efforts to vaccinate America and combat the COVID-19 pandemic globally; enabled small businesses and State and local governments to hire, rehire, and retain workers; and delivered immediate economic relief to tens of millions of Americans—to put food on their tables, keep a roof over their heads, enable them to work by keeping schools and child care providers open, and maintain their dignity in the face of the pandemic.."
U.S. Budget 

The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2022 to 2032

"The Congressional Budget Office regularly publishes reports presenting its baseline projections of what the federal budget and the economy would look like in the current year and over the next 10 years if current laws governing taxes and spending generally remained unchanged. This report is the latest in that series

 • The Budget.

CBO projects that the federal budget deficit will shrink to $1.0 trillion in 2022 (it was $2.8 trillion last year) and that the annual shortfall would average $1.6 trillion from 2023 to 2032. The deficit continues to decrease as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) next year as spending related to the coronavirus pandemic wanes, but then deficits increase, reaching 6.1 percent of GDP in 2032. The deficit has been greater than that only six times since 1946 (see Chapter 1).

Outlays are projected to average 23 percent of GDP over that period, a level high by historical standards, boosted by rising interest costs and greater spending for programs that provide benefits to elderly people (see Chapter 3). Revenues are projected to reach their highest level as a share of GDP in more than two decades in 2022 and then to decline over the following few years but remain above their long-term average through 2032 (see Chapter 4).

Relative to the size of the economy, federal debt held by the public is projected to dip over the next two years, to 96 percent of GDP in 2023, and to rise thereafter. In CBO’s projections, it reaches 110 percent of GDP in 2032 (higher than it has ever been) and 185 percent of GDP in 2052 (see Chapter 1). Moreover, if lawmakers amended current laws to maintain certain policies now in place, even larger increases in debt would ensue (see Chapter 5)..."
Federal Budget 

FY2023 Budget Documents: Internet and GPO Availability

"Every year the President submits a series of volumes to Congress containing the President’s proposed budget for the coming fiscal year. The President’s submission is required on or after the first Monday in January, but no later than the first Monday in February (31 U.S.C. §1105(a)). At times, the President’s submission has been delayed beyond the statutory deadline. This year the President released the budget submission on March 28, 2022.

This report provides brief descriptions of the FY2023 budget volumes and related documents, together with internet addresses, Government Publishing Office (GPO) stock numbers, and prices for obtaining print copies of these publications. It also explains how to find the locations of government depository libraries, which can provide both printed copies for reference use and internet access to the online versions. This report will be updated as events warrant.

Please note that neither the Congressional Research Service (CRS) nor the Library of Congress (LOC) distributes print copies of the budget documents..."
2023 budget documents 

Quick Summary of President’s FY 2023 Census Bureau Budget Request

[The Census Project]
"On March 28, President Biden released his Fiscal Year 2023 budget proposal. It includes $1.505 billion for the Census Bureau. The President’s request is a $151 million increase over the recently-enacted FY 2022 funding level for the Bureau ($1.354 billion). 
 
According to the White House release, this request includes $408 million “to finalize and evaluate the Decennial Census and lay the groundwork for a successful 2030 Census.”
 
The Census Bureau’s FY 2023 Congressional Justification provides more detail. Below are some highlights:

• $153.4 million ($34 million over FY 2022) to support data collection related to the Economic Census and Census of Governments.
• $235.6 million ($10 million over FY 2022) to support the American Community Survey (ACS), including an initiative to improve the measurement of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) population in the ACS. 
• $14.7 million increase in FY 2023 to support the High Frequency Data Program—an initiative that has emerged from the Bureau’s experimental Pulse Surveys. The request enables the Census Bureau to expand the program’s capabilities to provide “data and products quickly and more frequently in response to changing conditions in the economy and society.”
• $8.4 million increase for Enterprise Data Dissemination, which includes funding for an initiative “to build evidence, evaluations, and improve underlying racial and ethnicity data.”
• $68 million ($2.5 million increase over FY 2022) for all Household Surveys account, which funds the Current Population Survey and Survey of Income and Program Participation. Within this account, SIPP would receive a $1 million decrease over its FY 2022 level, while CPS would see an increase of approximately $4.5 million to develop and test a self-response web-based instrument.
• $3.7 million increase in FY 2023 to support the Community Resilience Estimates (CRE) program that began during the pandemic to provide more granular population data. The Census Bureau plans to transition the program from focusing exclusively on the pandemic to address other disasters and “add data for steady state programs.”.."
  President Biden's 2023 Budget Request 

A Budget for America's Future: FY 2021

"Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2021 contains the Budget Message of the President, information on the President’s priorities, and summary tables.

 Analytical Perspectives, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2021 contains analyses that are designed to highlight specified subject areas or provide other significant presentations of budget data that place the budget in perspective. This volume includes economic and accounting analyses, information on Federal receipts and collections, analyses of Federal spending, information on Federal borrowing and debt, baseline or current services estimates, and other technical presentations.

Supplemental tables and other materials that are part of the Analytical Perspectives volume are available at https://whitehouse.gov/omb/ analytical-perspectives/.

Appendix, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2021 contains detailed information on the various appropriations and funds that constitute the budget and is designed primarily for the use of the Appropriations Committees. The Appendix contains more detailed financial information on individual programs and appropriation accounts than any of the other budget documents. It includes for each agency: the proposed text of appropriations language; budget schedules for each account; legislative proposals; narrative explanations of each budget account; and proposed general provisions applicable to the appropriations of entire agencies or group of agencies. Information is also provided on certain activities whose transactions are not part of the budget totals.

Major Savings and Reforms, Fiscal Year 2021, which accompanies the President’s Budget, contains detailed information on major savings and reform proposals. The volume describes both major discretionary program eliminations and reductions and mandatory savings proposals..."
Budget of the U.S.

The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2019 to 2029

"The Congressional Budget Office regularly publishes reports presenting projections that indicate what federal deficits, debt, revenues, and spending—and the economic path underlying them— would be for the current year and for the next 10 years if existing laws governing taxes and spending generally remained unchanged. This report is the latest in that series...."
Federal budget outlook

The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2018 to 2028

"In CBO’s baseline projections, which incorporate the assumption that current laws governing taxes and spending generally remain unchanged, the federal budget deficit grows substantially over the next few years. Later on, between 2023 and 2028, it stabilizes in relation to the size of the economy, though at a high level by historical standards.

As a result, federal debt is projected to be on a steadily rising trajectory throughout the coming decade. Debt held by the public, which has doubled in the past 10 years as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), approaches 100 percent of GDP by 2028 in CBO’s projections. That amount is far greater than the debt in any year since just after World War II. Moreover, if lawmakers changed current law to maintain certain current policies—preventing a significant increase in individual income taxes in 2026 and drops in funding for defense and nondefense discretionary programs in 2020, for example—the result would be even larger increases in debt..."

Federal budget

An American Budget: Fiscal Year 2019

"Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2019 contains the Budget Message of the President, information on the President’s priorities, and summary tables..."
2019 Federal Budget

FY2018 Budget Documents: Internet and GPO Availability

"Every year the President submits a series of volumes to Congress containing the President’s proposed budget for the coming fiscal year. The President’s submission is required on or after the first Monday in January, but no later than the first Monday in February (31 U.S.C. §1105(a)). However, incoming presidential Administrations do not generally release multivolume budget sets in February. This year the President released a Budget Blueprint on March 16, 2017, and a full budget submission on May 23, 2017.

This report provides brief descriptions of the budget volumes and related documents, together with Internet addresses, Government Publishing Office (GPO) stock numbers, and prices for obtaining print copies of these publications. It also explains how to find the locations of government depository libraries, which can provide both printed copies for reference use and Internet access to the online versions. This report will be updated as events warrant..."
2018 Federal Budget

The 2017 Economic and Budget Outlook

"This presentation provides 10-year budget and economic projections as well as longer-term budget projections published in The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2017 to 2027 (January 2017), www.cbo.gov/publication/52370, and The 2017 Long-Term Budget Outlook (March 2017), www.cbo.gov/publication/52480..."
Economic and budget outlook

America First A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again

"A MESSAGE TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:
The American people elected me to fight for their priorities in Washington, D.C. and deliver on my promise to protect our Nation. I fully intend to keep that promise.

One of the most important ways the Federal Government sets priorities is through the Budget of the United States.

Accordingly, I submit to the Congress this Budget Blueprint to reprioritize Federal spending so that it advances the safety and security of the American people.

Our aim is to meet the simple, but crucial demand of our citizens—a Government that puts the needs of its own people first. When we do that, we will set free the dreams of every American, and we will begin a new chapter of American greatness.

A budget that puts America first must make the safety of our people its number one priority— because without safety, there can be no prosperity.

That is why I have instructed my Budget Director, Mick Mulvaney, to craft a budget that emphasizes national security and public safety. That work is reflected in this Budget Blueprint. To keep Americans safe, we have made tough choices that have been put off for too long. But we have also made necessary investments that are long overdue.

My Budget Blueprint for 2018:
• provides for one of the largest increases in defense spending without increasing the debt;
• significantly increases the budget for immigration enforcement at the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security;
• includes additional resources for a wall on the southern border with Mexico, immigration judges, expanded detention capacity, U.S. Attorneys, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Border Patrol;
• increases funding to address violent crime and reduces opioid abuse; and
• puts America first by keeping more of America’s hard-earned tax dollars here at home..."
2018 Federal Budget

American Health Care Act

"The Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2017 directed the House Committees on Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce to develop legislation to reduce the deficit. The Congressional Budget Office and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) have produced an estimate of the budgetary effects of the American Health Care Act, which combines the pieces of legislation approved by the two committees pursuant to that resolution. In consultation with the budget committees, CBO used its March 2016 baseline with adjustments for subsequently enacted legislation, which underlies the resolution, as the benchmark to measure the cost of the legislation.

Effects on the Federal Budget 

CBO and JCT estimate that enacting the legislation would reduce federal deficits by $337 billion over the 2017-2026 period. That total consists of $323 billion in on-budget savings and $13 billion in off-budget savings. Outlays would be reduced by $1.2 trillion over the period, and revenues would be reduced by $0.9 trillion. The largest savings would come from reductions in outlays for Medicaid and from the elimination of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) subsidies for nongroup health insurance.

The largest costs would come from repealing many of the changes the ACA made to the Internal Revenue Code—including an increase in the Hospital Insurance payroll tax rate for high-income taxpayers, a surtax on those taxpayers’ net investment income, and annual fees imposed on health insurers—and from the establishment of a new tax credit for health insurance..." 
American Health Care Act

Spending on Infrastructure and Investment

"he federal government spends hundreds of billions of dollars every year on infrastructure and other investments, either directly or through grants to state and local governments. During testimony that CBO’s Director gave at the beginning of February on the outlook for the federal budget and the economy, some Members of Congress asked about issues related to infrastructure and investment. Because answers during Congressional hearings need to be brief, this blog post provides additional information about those issues and highlights some of CBO’s related work..."
Infrastucture spending

Projected Costs of U.S. Nuclear Forces, 2017 to 2026

"Nuclear weapons have been a cornerstone of U.S. national security since they were developed during World War II. In the Cold War, nuclear forces were central to U.S. defense policy, resulting in the buildup of a large arsenal. Since that time, nuclear forces have figured less prominently than conventional forces, and the United States has not built any new nuclear weapons or delivery systems for many years....

If carried out, the plans for nuclear forces delineated in the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) and the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) budget requests for fiscal year 2017 would cost a total of $400 billion over the 2017– 2026 period, CBO estimates—an average of $40 billion a year. (In this analysis, “costs” refers to budget authority, the amount that would need to be appropriated to implement the plans.) The current 10-year total is 15 percent higher than CBO’s most recent previous estimate of the 10-year costs of nuclear forces, $348 billion over the 2015–2024 period..."
U.S. Nuclear forces

Blog CBO Director’s Statement About the Budget and Economic Outlook for 2017 to 2027

"CBO Director’s Statement About the Budget and Economic Outlook for 2017 to 2027

Posted by Keith Hall on

January 24, 2017

This morning I briefed the press about The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2017 to 2027, which CBO published today along with two slide decks, The Budget Outlook for 2017 to 2027 in 20 Slides and The Economic Outlook for 2017 to 2027 in 16 Slides, illustrating the report’s key findings.

The briefing opened with the following remarks.

Summary of the Baseline Economic Outlook

The economic forecast that underlies CBO’s budget projections indicates that in real (inflation-adjusted) terms, gross domestic product will expand at an average annual pace of 2.1 percent over the next two years—if current laws generally remained unchanged—after rising last year at an annual rate of 1.8 percent. We expect that growth to boost employment, virtually eliminate the remaining slack in the economy, and drop the unemployment rate to 4.4 percent by the fourth quarter of 2018..."

Economic outlook

An Update to the Budget and Economic Outlook: 2016 to 2026

"In fiscal year 2016, the federal budget deficit will increase in relation to economic output for the first time since 2009, the Congressional Budget Office estimates. If current laws generally remained unchanged—an assumption underlying CBO’s baseline projections— deficits would continue to mount over the next 10 years, and debt held by the public would rise from its already high level..."
Federal budget

The 2016 Long-Term Budget Outlook

"If current laws governing taxes and spending did not change, the United States would face steadily increasing federal budget deficits and debt over the next 30 years, according to projections by the Congressional Budget Office. Federal debt held by the public, which was equal to 39 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) at the end of fiscal year 2008, has already risen to 75 percent of GDP in the wake of a financial crisis and a recession. In CBO’s projections, that debt rises to 86 percent of GDP in 2026 and to 141 percent in 2046—exceeding the historical peak of 106 percent that occurred just after World War II. The prospect of such large debt poses substantial risks for the nation and presents policymakers with significant challenges..."
Federal budget

A Macroeconomic Analysis of the President’s 2017 Budget

"Each year, after the President releases the Administration’s budget request, the Congressional Budget Office analyzes the proposals in that request. Using its own economic projections and estimating procedures, CBO projects what the federal budget would look like over the next 10 years if the President’s proposals were adopted. CBO provides that information in two reports. In general, the first report examines the proposals’ direct effects on the budget; the second, which takes more time to prepare, shows the effects that the proposals would have on the economy and how those macroeconomic effects would, in turn, feed back into the budget..."
Federal budget

Scanning and Imaging Shipping Containers Overseas: Costs and Alternatives

"Each year, about 12 million shipping containers enter U.S. ports. After the September 11, 2001, attacks, concern arose that terrorists might use containers to smuggle weapons of mass destruction—particularly nuclear weapons—into the country. To reduce that threat, the federal government implemented several security measures. Among them, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), an agency of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), scans every container entering the United States by sea or land to detect radiation.1 CBP also identifies about 5 percent of all incoming seaborne containers as high risk, and it inspects those containers with X-ray or gamma-ray imaging systems. The agency opens and examines containers if the images suggest that the cargo is potentially dangerous or does not match the manifest..."
Shipping containers