2004 Us Federal State And Local Government Spending - 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.

2004 US Federal, State, and Local Government Spending

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