National Priorities Project: Democratizing the Federal Budget

$1.15 trillion in Discretionary Spending

This is how President Obama proposes allocating $1.15 trillion in discretionary spending in fiscal year 2014. Discretionary spending, which accounts for 30 percent of the president's proposed 2014 budget, does not include earned-benefit programs like Social Security and Medicare. Rather, it includes programs whose funding levels are set each year by lawmakers during the appropriations process, including the military, education, job training, and the environment.

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$2.4 trillion in Mandatory Spending

This chart shows President Obama’s projections for mandatory spending in fiscal year 2014. Mandatory spending, which accounts for 64 percent of the president's 2014 budget proposal, includes programs like Social Security and Medicare, which are often called earned-benefit or entitlement programs. Lawmakers do not choose the exact amount of money spent on these programs, because it depends on how many people qualify for benefits.

Note: While there is some mandatory spending that occurs in categories beyond the five that are shown in this chart, they are so small that together they account for less than 1 percent of the total and have been omitted.

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$3.8 trillion in Total Spending

This chart shows how President Obama proposes spending $3.8 trillion in fiscal year 2014. This includes every kind of federal spending, from funding for discretionary programs like job training and environmental protection to mandatory programs like Social Security and Medicare as well as interest payments on the federal debt.

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On April 15, 2013, millions of Americans will file their income taxes for 2012. This chart shows how each one of your income tax dollars was spent by the federal government in fiscal year 2012.

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• How Did We Get These Numbers?

Note: This chart shows how your income taxes were spent – those are the taxes due each year on April 15. This chart does not include the taxes you pay to fund Social Security and Medicare.