Feb. 29, 2012

The Budget Snapshot describes how the president proposes spending $3.67 trillion in fiscal year 2013. But another way of breaking apart the budget is to look at how federal spending priorities have shifted over time.

For example, military spending comprised 30 percent of the total federal budget in the 1980s under President Reagan, 16 percent in fiscal 1998 under President Clinton, and 18 percent in President Obama’s 2013 budget. Meanwhile spending for Medicare and other kinds of health care spending has gone from 7 percent of the budget in 1976 to 24 percent in 2013.

This interactive visualization lets you see how each kind of federal spending has changed over time.