Government Spending In The United States - Road to the Middle Class

THIS TABLE aggregates all government spending in the United States of America for the fiscal year 2004 organized by government function. As of the time of writing, FY 2004 is the latest year for which actual government spending is available for all levels of government.

The table is derived from two spreadsheets published by the United States government.

Federal spending is obtained from Table 3.2 Ã¢â‚¬â€ Outlays by Function and Subfunction: 1962Ã¢â‚¬â€œ2010 in Budget of the United States Government: Historical Tables Fiscal Year 2006 published by the Executive Office of the President of the United States.

State and local government spending is obtained from Table 1. State and Local Government Finances by Level of Government and by State: 2003-04 published by the United States Census Bureau.

United States Federal, State,
and Local Government Spending
Fiscal Year 2004

	Fed	Gov.	State	Local	Total
		Xfer
Amounts in billions of dollars
Tier One - Seniors	860		111	26	998
--Social Security	496				496
--Medicare	269				269
--Disability	7				7
--Gov. Retirement	89		111	26	226

Tier Two - Education	85	-60	201	538	764
--K-12	34	-34	7	498	505
--Higher	25	-25	163	31	194
--Other	25		31	9	65

Tier Three - Welfare	471	-320	411	137	699
--Cash and Food Stamps	46		12	9	67
--Health, Hospitals	270	-210	71	94	225
--Social Services	110	-110	280	34	314
--Unemployment	45		48	0	93

Tier Four - Defense	588	-11	48	53	677
--Military	456				456
--Veterans	60		2		61
--Justice, Police, Fire, Prisons	72	-11	46	53	160

Tier Five - Transportation	65	-41	124	84	232

General Government	22		43	57	123

Interest	322		33	49	403

Other	468	-5	471	332	1,266

Total Government Spending in the United States for FY 2004	2,292	-426	1,406	1,258	4,530

Note: All values are taken exactly from the two spreadsheets referenced above and rounded to the nearest billion dollars, except for the column labeled “Gov. Xfer.”

The “Gov. Xfer” column represents intergovernmental transfers from the federal government to the states and local governments. For instance, Medicaid (included under Health, Hospitals) is a joint federal-state program in which the federal government reimburses state governments for 50 percent or more of their expenses.

The exact size of the intergovernmental transfer for each program is not given in the two tables, so the amount shown on each line of the table is an estimate made by the author. The total of all transfers is $426 billion from the feds to the state and local governments, a number that is published in the Census Bureau table of state and local government spending referenced above.

Christopher Chantrill blogs at americanmanifestobook.blogspot.com.

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Faith & Purpose

“When we began first to preach these things, the people appeared as awakened from the sleep of ages—they seemed to see for the first time that they were responsible beings...”
Finke, Stark, The Churching of America, 1776-1990

Mutual Aid

In 1911... at least nine million of the 12 million covered by national insurance were already members of voluntary sick pay schemes. A similar proportion were also eligible for medical care.
Green, Reinventing Civil Society

Education

“We have met with families in which for weeks together, not an article of sustenance but potatoes had been used; yet for every child the hard-earned sum was provided to send them to school.”
E. G. West, Education and the State

Living Under Law

Law being too tenuous to rely upon in [Ulster and the Scottish borderlands], people developed patterns of settling differences by personal fighting and family feuds.
Thomas Sowell, Conquests and Cultures

German Philosophy

The primary thing to keep in mind about German and Russian thought since 1800 is that it takes for granted that the Cartesian, Lockean or Humean scientific and philosophical conception of man and nature... has been shown by indisputable evidence to be inadequate.
F.S.C. Northrop, The Meeting of East and West

Knowledge

Inquiry does not start unless there is a problem... It is the problem and its characteristics revealed by analysis which guides one first to the relevant facts and then, once the relevant facts are known, to the relevant hypotheses.
F.S.C. Northrop, The Logic of the Sciences and the Humanities

Chappies

“But I saw a man yesterday who knows a fellow who had it from a chappie that said that Urquhart had been dipping himself a bit recklessly off the deep end.” —Freddy Arbuthnot
Dorothy L. Sayers, Strong Poison

Democratic Capitalism

I mean three systems in one: a predominantly market economy; a polity respectful of the rights of the individual to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and a system of cultural institutions moved by ideals of liberty and justice for all. In short, three dynamic and converging systems functioning as one: a democratic polity, an economy based on markets and incentives, and a moral-cultural system which is plural and, in the largest sense, liberal.
Michael Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism

Action

The incentive that impels a man to act is always some uneasiness... But to make a man act [he must have] the expectation that purposeful behavior has the power to remove or at least to alleviate the felt uneasiness.
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action

Churches

[In the] higher Christian churches... they saunter through the liturgy like Mohawks along a string of scaffolding who have long since forgotten their danger. If God were to blast such a service to bits, the congregation would be, I believe, genuinely shocked. But in the low churches you expect it every minute.
Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm

Conversion

“When we received Christ,” Phil added, “all of a sudden we now had a rule book to go by, and when we had problems the preacher was right there to give us the answers.”
James M. Ault, Jr., Spirit and Flesh

Living Law

The recognition and integration of extralegal property rights [in the Homestead Act] was a key element in the United States becoming the most important market economy and producer of capital in the world.
Hernando de Soto, The Mystery of Capital

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