Where Your Tax Dollar Goes

01Every Dollar Breakdown

Social Security	22.5¢
Healthcare (Medicare, Medicaid & other health)	28.4¢
National Defense	13.1¢
Interest on National Debt	14.2¢
Income Security (Safety Net)	9.4¢
Veterans Benefits	5.6¢
Education, Training & Social Services	1.5¢
Transportation & Infrastructure	1.9¢
Science, International Affairs & Other (net of offsetting receipts)	3.4¢

Cents per dollar of total federal outlays in fiscal year 2026 ($7.40 trillion), by budget function. These are shares of spending, not of taxes: receipts of $5.40 trillion covered about 73 cents of each dollar spent, and the $1.99 trillion deficit, covered by borrowing, the other 27 cents, so each category is paid for partly with borrowed money. Source: Treasury Monthly Treasury Statement, September 2026.

02Your Tax Dollar at Work

Every dollar the federal government collects in taxes funds the programs and services that keep America running. From the Social Security check your grandmother receives to the aircraft carrier protecting shipping lanes overseas, your tax dollars touch every aspect of American life.

The largest single expense? Social Security at 22.5 cents of every dollar, while healthcare programs (Medicare, Medicaid and other health) take 28.4 cents combined. Interest on the national debt took 14.2 cents in fiscal year 2026, more than national defense at 13.1 cents and more than veterans, education and transportation combined (9.0 cents).

Update, October 24, 2026 - fiscal year 2026 actuals: the breakdowns in sections 01-04, the department table in section 07 and the program table in section 08 all use these figures. In fiscal year 2026 (October 2025-September 2026) the federal government spent $7.40 trillion and collected $5.40 trillion, a deficit of $1.99 trillion. The biggest outlays by budget function were Social Security ($1.67 trillion, 22.5¢ of each dollar spent), Medicare ($1.07 trillion, 14.5¢), net interest ($1.05 trillion, 14.2¢), other health programs including Medicaid ($1.03 trillion, 13.9¢) and national defense ($965 billion, 13.1¢) (Treasury Monthly Treasury Statement, September 2026).

03Federal Budget Breakdown: Where the Money Goes

The complete picture of federal spending by major category, showing both the absolute amounts and percentage of your tax dollar.

04Where Every Cent Goes: Major Spending Categories

A detailed breakdown of the major federal spending categories and the specific programs your tax dollars fund within each area. Category totals and the program splits under each are fiscal year 2026 actual outlays (Treasury Monthly Treasury Statement, September 2026, Tables 5 and 9), in cents of every dollar of total FY 2026 outlays; rows may not add exactly to the category total because of rounding.

Social Security

22.5¢ of every dollar (FY 2026)

Old-Age & Survivors Insurance	20.3¢
Disability Insurance	2.2¢

$1.67 trillion in FY 2026. The largest single federal program, providing retirement, disability, and survivor benefits to about 72 million Americans (September 2026). Funded by payroll taxes on wages up to $184,500 (2026 wage base). Average monthly retired-worker benefit: about $2,071 (January 2026). Program is expected to face funding shortfall by 2034 without reforms.

Healthcare Programs

28.4¢ of every dollar (FY 2026)

Medicare	14.5¢
Medicaid and other health (incl. ACA premium tax credits)	13.9¢

$2.10 trillion in FY 2026 (Medicare $1.07 trillion; Medicaid and other health programs $1.03 trillion). Medicare covers about 70 million seniors and people with disabilities (April 2026), and Medicaid and CHIP about 73 million people (June 2026). Combined, these programs represent the federal government's largest healthcare investment, covering hospital bills, doctor visits, prescriptions, and long-term care.

National Defense

13.1¢ of every dollar (FY 2026)

Military Personnel	3.0¢
Operations & Maintenance	4.5¢
Procurement & R&D	4.6¢
Military construction, DOE nuclear weapons and other	0.9¢

$965 billion in FY 2026. Funds 1.3 million active-duty military personnel, operates 800+ bases worldwide, maintains nuclear arsenal, develops advanced weapons systems, and conducts global operations. Includes military pay, benefits, equipment, training, and overseas deployments.

Interest on National Debt

14.2¢ of every dollar (FY 2026)

Interest on Treasury debt securities (gross)	18.4¢
Less: interest received by trust funds and other interest income	-4.2¢

$1.05 trillion in FY 2026. Pure debt service - money that buys no services, builds no infrastructure, helps no citizens. With $40.17 trillion in national debt (September 30, 2026) and higher interest rates, this is the fastest-growing category of federal spending. What a rate rise costs depends on how fast the debt rolls over: the Congressional Budget Office estimates that interest rates 0.1 percentage point higher than it projects, every year, would add $60 billion to the deficit in 2036 and $379 billion over 2027-2036 (April 2026). As an upper bound, one full percentage point on all $32.4 trillion of debt held by the public (September 30, 2026) would add about $324 billion a year, but only once every Treasury security had been refinanced at the higher rate, which takes years.

Safety Net Programs

9.4¢ of every dollar (FY 2026)

SNAP (Food Stamps)	1.3¢
Supplemental Security Income	1.0¢
Earned Income Tax Credit (refundable portion)	0.9¢
Unemployment Insurance (state benefits)	0.5¢
Housing vouchers (tenant-based rental assistance)	0.5¢
Child Tax Credit (refundable portion)	0.4¢
Federal civilian and military retirement, child nutrition, TANF, WIC, other housing and other	4.8¢

$694 billion in FY 2026 for the income security budget function, which also covers federal employee retirement and housing aid. Programs that provide a financial floor for Americans facing hardship. SNAP serves 42 million people with food assistance. Unemployment insurance covers temporarily jobless workers. Tax credits support working families with children.

Veterans Benefits

5.6¢ of every dollar (FY 2026)

Disability Compensation & Pensions	3.0¢
VA Healthcare (medical services, facilities, support)	1.5¢
Education Benefits (GI Bill)	0.2¢
All other VA programs	0.8¢

$416 billion in FY 2026. Serves the nation's roughly 17 million veterans (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025) through healthcare, disability compensation, education benefits, and pensions. VA operates 1,255 healthcare facilities and processes 1.6 million disability claims annually. GI Bill provides college funding for veterans and families.

Education

1.5¢ of every dollar (FY 2026)

Pell Grants and other student financial assistance	0.6¢
Federal direct student loans	0.6¢
Special Education	0.2¢
Title I, Head Start, job training and all other, net	0.1¢

$108 billion in FY 2026 (education, training, employment and social services). Federal education funding supports K-12 schools in low-income areas, special education, college financial aid, and early childhood programs. Pell Grants serve 6.6 million college students. Most education funding comes from state and local sources.

Science, Transportation & Other

7.4¢ of every dollar before offsetting receipts (FY 2026)

Transportation & Infrastructure	1.9¢
Administration of Justice	1.5¢
Community development, energy and commerce (net)	0.9¢
Natural Resources & Environment	0.8¢
Agriculture	0.7¢
International Affairs	0.6¢
Science & Space	0.5¢
General Government Operations	0.4¢

$551 billion in FY 2026, before $155 billion of undistributed offsetting receipts. Everything else the federal government does: maintaining highways and airports, funding NASA and NIH research, foreign aid, FBI and federal courts, national parks, farm subsidies, and running the government itself. Individually small but collectively significant.

05Mandatory vs. Discretionary: What Congress Controls (FY 2024)

Not all spending is created equal. Mandatory programs run on autopilot, while discretionary spending gets debated and voted on annually.

This chart uses fiscal year 2024, not 2026 like the rest of the page. Shares of fiscal year 2024 outlays: $4.1 trillion mandatory, $1.8 trillion discretionary and about $0.9 trillion net interest (Congressional Budget Office).

06How Federal Spending Has Changed Over Time

The composition of federal spending has dramatically shifted over the past 50 years, with healthcare and interest costs growing rapidly.

Cents per dollar of total federal outlays by fiscal year. 2024 values from the Treasury Monthly Treasury Statement, September 2024; 2026 values from the September 2026 statement (Table 9), matching section 01.

07Department-by-Department: Where Your Money Goes

The federal government is organized into 15 cabinet-level departments plus dozens of independent agencies. Here is how much of every dollar of fiscal year 2026 spending (October 2025-September 2026) each major department paid out. Figures are net outlays by agency from the Treasury Monthly Treasury Statement for September 2026 (Table 5), in cents of the $7.40 trillion total. Agency totals add to more than 100 cents because $373 billion of undistributed offsetting receipts, mainly interest the Treasury pays to the trust funds and agencies' own retirement contributions, is deducted on a separate line.

Department	FY 2026 Outlays	Per Dollar Spent
Health & Human Services	$2,004B	27.1¢
Social Security Administration	$1,734B	23.4¢
Treasury (incl. $1.36T gross interest on the debt)	$1,581B	21.4¢
Department of Defense (military programs)	$917B	12.4¢
Veterans Affairs	$416B	5.6¢
Agriculture	$217B	2.9¢
Office of Personnel Management (federal retirement and health)	$136B	1.8¢
Transportation	$124B	1.7¢
Homeland Security	$110B	1.5¢
Education	$75B	1.0¢
Housing & Urban Development	$68B	0.9¢
Labor	$55B	0.7¢
Energy	$52B	0.7¢
Justice	$45B	0.6¢
State Department	$29B	0.4¢
NASA	$23B	0.3¢
EPA	$17B	0.2¢
National Science Foundation	$8.9B	0.1¢
All other agencies (incl. military retirement fund, independent agencies, Congress and courts)	$157B	2.1¢
Less: undistributed offsetting receipts (interest paid to trust funds, agency retirement contributions, offshore oil and spectrum receipts)	-$373B	-5.0¢
Total federal outlays, FY 2026	$7,396B	100.0¢

Net outlays by agency, fiscal year 2026, from the Treasury Monthly Treasury Statement, September 2026 (Table 5). Treasury's total is mostly gross interest on the debt; net of interest received by trust funds, net interest was $1.05 trillion (14.2¢). Rows may not add exactly because of rounding.

Fun Fact: NASA's entire FY 2026 outlays ($23 billion) equal what the government spent on net interest in about 8 days ($1.05 trillion in FY 2026, about $2.9 billion a day). The EPA's FY 2026 outlays ($17 billion) equal about 6 days of interest. Federal science funding (NIH $45.6 billion, NASA $23.4 billion, NSF $8.9 billion and the Department of Energy Office of Science $8.4 billion in FY 2026) totals about 1.2 cents of every dollar spent.

08The Complete Federal Budget: Every Program

The most detailed breakdown on this page: every federal budget function and its biggest programs, with what each actually spent in fiscal year 2026 and how much of every dollar of federal spending it took. This is where the money actually goes, down to the tenth of a cent.

Source and basis: fiscal year 2026 actual net outlays (October 2025-September 2026) from the Treasury Monthly Treasury Statement, September 2026. Capitalized rows are budget functions (Table 9), listed largest first with the smaller functions grouped under All other functions, and they add to total outlays of $7.40 trillion; indented rows are agency accounts (Table 5) within each function. Per-dollar figures are shares of the $7.40 trillion total; FY 2026 receipts were $5.40 trillion and the deficit $1.99 trillion. Medicare Advantage (Part C) is paid from the Part A and Part B trust funds, so it is included in those rows. NASA is shown at its agency total, part of which (aeronautics) is counted under transportation. Rows may not add exactly because of rounding.

09The Growing Problem: Interest on the National Debt

Perhaps the most troubling trend in federal spending is the rapid growth of interest payments on the national debt. At 14.2 cents of every dollar spent in fiscal year 2026, debt service now exceeds spending on veterans, education, transportation, science, and international affairs combined.

The Math is Sobering: A 1 percentage point rise in interest rates would add about $324 billion a year to interest costs once all $32.4 trillion of debt held by the public (September 30, 2026) had rolled over at the higher rate, a process that takes years; the Congressional Budget Office puts the cost of rates 0.1 point higher than projected at $379 billion over 2027-2036 (April 2026). With rates at multi-decade highs and debt continuing to grow, interest payments have now passed defense spending: in fiscal year 2026 net interest was $1.05 trillion against $965 billion for national defense, and it took about 19.5 cents of every federal revenue dollar (Treasury Monthly Treasury Statement, September 2026). By 2034, the CBO projects debt service will consume 20 cents of every tax dollar.

10The Bottom Line: Where Your Money Goes

Your tax dollars fund the essential functions of American society - from the Social Security check that provides dignity in retirement to the military forces that protect our shores to the interstate highways that connect our communities. Understanding how these dollars are spent is crucial for informed citizenship and democratic participation.

The largest programs - Social Security, Medicare, and defense - took about half of all federal spending in fiscal year 2026 (50.1 cents of every dollar), and adding net interest and Medicaid and other health brings it to more than three-quarters. But it's the smaller programs that often touch daily life most directly: food inspectors ensuring safe meals, air traffic controllers managing busy skies, weather forecasters warning of storms, and researchers developing tomorrow's medical breakthroughs.

As you review your tax bill each year, remember that those dollars represent investments in America's present and future - from caring for seniors and veterans who served our nation to educating the next generation and advancing the frontiers of human knowledge. Every dollar tells a story of national priorities and shared values.

11Sources & Methodology

Spending, receipts and deficit figures in sections 01-04 and 07-09 are fiscal year 2026 actuals (October 2025-September 2026) from the Treasury Department Monthly Treasury Statement for September 2026: Table 9 (outlays by budget function) for the category totals, and Table 5 (outlays by agency and account) for the department table and the program rows. Per-dollar figures throughout are shares of total FY 2026 outlays of $7.40 trillion. The mandatory-versus-discretionary split in section 05 is fiscal year 2024 data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and the long-run trend in section 06 draws on Office of Management and Budget (OMB) historical tables with 2024 and 2026 points from the Monthly Treasury Statement. Beneficiary counts are from agency reports, dated where shown.