Updated 1 July 2009

This bar chart is based on U. S. Senate Appropriations Bills and the Monthly Treasury Statement.

We put the data published by the U. S. Treasury Department into a spreadsheet and generate the bar chart from that spreadsheet.

The "estimate bar" in the "Debt Total" box for the next Fiscal Year (FY) is generated by our analysts from data published by the Congressional Budget Office and several other sources.

And this chart DOES NOT show the "earmarked" spending at all. It is not accounted for.

Your money is spent through Appropriations Bills passed by The U. S. Senate and signed by the President. The Government does not have any money, it takes your money from you and, and borrows more, then spends that! The bailouts of 2008 and 2009 are purely deficit spending. Expect to see enormous deficits in the forseeable future, leading to much more debt; and interest payments on that debt will become the largest item in the federal budget. On C-SPAN, President Obama boldly told Americans: "We are out of money."

Bulletin (24 March 2009): Warning! This report from Washington Post: "The Obama administration will ask Congress to give the Treasury secretary unprecedented powers to initiate the seizure of non-bank financial companies, such as large insurers, investment firms and hedge funds, whose collapse would damage the broader economy, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said this morning." Visit the Government's new "Recovery" web site; see if you can figure it out.

In Fiscal Year 2008 (FY08), the U. S. Government spent $412 Billion of your money on interest payments* to the holders of the National Debt. Compare that to NASA at $15 Billion, Education at $61 Billion, and Department of Transportation at $56 Billion. -- As of May 2009, the interest expense so far this fiscal year (FY09) is $214 Billion.

The interest expense paid on the National Debt is the third largest expense in the federal budget. Only Defense and income redistribution (The Departments of Health and Human Services, HUD, and Agriculture (food stamps)) are higher. Do you have "Compassion" for the lower income earners? Social spending is the largest item in our federal budget.

The U. S. Dollar is being replaced as the international trade standard. Our large national debt is the main reason; and now (2009) Congress has just passed the "Economic Stimulus" bill that will shift us from an "economic crisis" to a debt crisis! If businesses could print their own money and give it away to customers so they could buy the products, many folks would be happy for a while; but the businesses would go bankrupt. Well, that's what our government is currently doing, printing and giving away money.

What is causing this national budget crisis? How do we fix this growing debt problem? A balanced budget amendment is one suggested solution. What's your solution? FAQs and Answers on the Balanced Budget Amendment and Article V of the Constitution.

OPPOSING VIEWS AND MORE:

NOTABLE QUOTES

"For society as a whole, nothing comes as a 'right' to which we are 'entitled'. Even bare subsistence has to be produced.... The only way anyone can have a right to something that has to be produced is to force someone else to produce it... The more things are provided as rights, the less the recipients have to work and the more the providers have to carry the load." Thomas Sowell, quoted in Forbes and Reader's Digest.

According to Mr. Kneeland, "...all dollars come from the people. Where do [you] think Coca-Cola gets the money to pay its taxes, Exxon gets its money to pay the Exxon Valdez fines, Denny's gets the money to pay its Justice Department fines, or even Microsoft gets the money to defend itself? It all ultimately can come from only one place, and that's from individuals." ED: When you buy a product, the price of that product has to cover ALL the costs to get that product to you.

"A politician cannot spend one dime on any spending project without first taking that dime from the person who earned it. So, when a politician votes for a spending bill he is saying that he believes the government should spend that particular dollar rather than the individual who worked for it." Neal Boortz.

"There is no such thing as government money - only taxpayer money." William Weld, quoted in Readers Digest.

Social Security is not part of the Federal Budget general fund. It is a separate account and has its own source of income. Social Security payments do not go into the general fund, they go in the Social Security trust fund, and should NOT be counted as general revenue. The trust fund is supposed to be used to pay future benefits. But....keep reading....

Currently, there is more being payed into the Social Security Trust Fund than is being paid out to beneficiaries. What's left over is routinely being "borrowed" and used as if it were general budget revenue. Government agencies using that money promise to pay it back (IOUs). All of the money in the Social Security Trust Fund has been spent! That's part of the National Debt. So Social Security is just a very large tax collection tool.

Beware the term "Social Security Surplus"; there is no such thing. Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme, there is never more in the Trust Fund than will ever be needed.

Social Security will need to be fixed. Here is a debate page. And here is more information on the Root Problem with Social Security.

The Federal Government doesn't do anything well. It's inefficient, slow, prone to fraud, and ineffective. Examples? Take a look at how well the Securities and Exchange Commission monitored the Madoff situation; Look at how well FEMA handled Katrina; Look at how well the INS handles the immigration problem; Look how well the FDA inspected the peanut industry, the bailout fiasco.... Government will never provide a service for you better than you can do it yourself. Why would you trust the Federal Government to take care of you in retirement?

You are a taxpayer, the Government is taking your money from you and spending it. Is your money being spent the way you want it spent? Have you told your Representative, your Senators? Have you considered that the United States has the best Constitution in the world, but that Congress is not paying attention to it? Is there a Constitutional Political Party. Editors note: Actually the Government just makes money whenever it wants to; consider the bailouts of 2008. It does not need income from tax collections to operate. So why have taxation? The tax code is a means to control behavior, it is the epitomy of government power.

* It's true that we have to pay interest on the National Debt. But some citizens own a portion of the national debt, in the form of savings bonds and other government bonds. So some of the interest payment goes to them. You may be one of them. You'd want to keep your interest income coming. But the interest payment is being paid by taxpayers, and you may be one of them also...it's a tangled web.

Income Redistribution: Government takes money that you earned from you, and gives it to someone else. This happens when the tax money you are forced to give to the government is given to others for their use. Examples: Bailouts, and Earned Income Credit. Then, how do you give a tax break to lower scale wage earners that don't pay much income tax? You have to take it from the higher scale wage earners and give it to the lower scale wage earners. Now look at this link. more