Mandatory Spending in our Federal Budget

Mandatory spending accounts for more than 60% of the federal budget. This bar chart shows the projected amount, in billions of dollars, spent on select mandatory programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Congressional Budget Office, January 2012

 

National Budget--Public Debt

When tax revenue is too low to fund federal government operations and and existing debt obligations, the Treasury issues debt that external investors can purchase.
Today that value is: $10,675,327,157,595