The US federal budget for fiscal year 2008 totaled $2.902 trillion in spending with a projected deficit of $239 billion. Most discretionary expenditures went to the military and security. Individual income taxes made up the majority of receipts, while corporate income and social security taxes also contributed significantly. The budget and GDP have been closely linked over time, with expenditures averaging around 20% of GDP since WWII. The national debt has risen whenever there are budget deficits, totaling over $9 trillion currently.

1. The Federal Budget A Graphical Primer

2. 2008 Budget Forecast $2.902 trillion in total spending 4.8% raw dollar increase over FY 2007 $239 billion projected deficit 2.0% raw dollar deficit reduction over FY 2007 929.8 billion in discretionary spending

3. Where does discretionary spending go?

4. Expenditures Majority of discretionary expenditures for military / security Non-discretionary spending counts for almost 3/5 of the total budget Social security and emergency funding are considered “off-budget” spending

5. Where does the money come from?

6. Receipts Majority of receipts from individual income tax Corporate income tax receipts slightly more than ¼ of individual receipts Off-budget (i.e. social security) tax receipts total 674.1 billion

7. On-Budget Receipts and Expenditures since 1901

8. The Changing Budget On-budget spending hit 1 billion for the first time in 1917 10 billion in 1918 100 billion in 1964 1 trillion in 1995 2 trillion in 2005 Revenue has exceeded expenditures 27 times since 1901 Revenue has exceeded expenditures only 3 times since 1960

9. Budget & GDP Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the total value of final goods and services produced in a year Budget is often discussed as a percentage of GDP Useful because inflation makes raw dollar amounts a deceptive indicator

10. Budget & GDP (1940-2008)

11. Budget & GDP As a percentage of GDP, expenditures average 20.4 % with standard deviation of 5.6 Standard deviation and average are skewed because of extremely high WWII expenditures Disregarding WWII yields 19.6 % with StdDev of 2.8 Receipts average 17.5 % with standard deviation of 2.4, since WWII did not affect revenue

12. National Debt The national debt reflects the tendency for budget expenditures to exceed receipts Debt rises during budget deficits Total current outstanding debt over 9 trillion dollars

13. National Debt since 1940

14. The Federal Budget To learn more about the federal budget, visit www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/ All statistics gleaned from US government charts and tables

15. Note The photos on slides 1 and 14 are licensed Creative Commons attribution, Slide 1 is flickr member www.flickr.com/photos/pixelcore/ Slide 14 is www.flickr.com/photos/pling/