What is the U.S. Budget and Where does the Money Go?

The actual payments made by the U.S. government in 2002 amounted to just over two trillion dollars - that's 2,000 billion dollars! We have taken a close look at the budget and pulled out some of the major categories to give you an idea of the allocations. The amounts below are in millions of dollars (1,000,000). See the "notes" section below for further descriptions of the categories.

category	millions of dollars
Social security	456,413
National defense	348,555
Medicare	230,855
Health	196,545
Interest	170,951
Other	97,794
Fed. employee retirement	83,193
Education/soc. services	70,544
Transportation	61,862
Veterans services	50,984
Unemployment	50,645
Administration of justice	34,316
Food assistance	33,228
Natural resources	29,454
International affairs	22,357
Agriculture	22,188
General government	17,385
Space flight	13,473
Community development	12,991
General science	7,242

Notes:

• Social Security: Disability Insurance (DI) and Social Security payments.
• National defense: military personnel, operations, procurement, research.
• Medicare: Hospital Insurance (HI), Supplementary medical insurance (SMI).
• Health: Medicaid grants, National Institute of Health, health care services.
• Interest: interest payments on government debt.
• Other: all other payments not specifically listed in this chart.
• Federal employee retirement: Federal employee retirement, disability, and related programs.
• Education/social services: public broadcasting, library of congress, education expenses, financial aid for students.
• Transportation: administration, maintenance and building of transportation infrastructure.
• Veterans services: Financial and medical aid for veterans.
• Unemployment: unemployment insurance.
• Administration of justice: law enforcement, border control, prison system.
• Food assistance: food stamps and child nutrition programs.
• Natural resources: pollution control, land management, recreational resources.
• International affairs: international security assistance, humanitarian assistance, State department.
• Agriculture: Farm subsidies, research, programs.
• General government: central fiscal operations, general government expenses.
• Space flight: procurement, operations, research and supporting activities.
• Community development: disaster relief, community programs, Indian programs.
• General science: Basic research funding through National Science Foundation and Department of Energy (does not include space research).