Government Current Expenditures by Function (2003)

Not a true link (data came from BEA) ^ | June 7, 2005 | LowCountryJoe

[LowCountryJoe]

The data to make this table came from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and was last revised on October 15,2004. It is the most current annual information regarding government spending and came from table 3.16. The BEA’s Estimated population in 4th qtr 2003 is 292,217,000 and came from table 2.1. A full list of the BEA tables can be found here.

Government Current Expenditures by Function

Item #	Federal Government Function	Amount (in $billions)	% of total spending	Per capita (in actual $s)
42	Federal	2,241.60	100.0%	$7,671.01
43	General public service (items 44-47)	284	12.7%	$971.88
44	Executive and legislative	55.7	2.5%	$190.61
45	Tax collection and financial   management	14.2	0.6%	$48.59
46	Interest payments	214.1	9.6%	$732.67
47	Other	0	0.0%	$-
48	National defense	440	19.6%	$1,505.73
49	Public order and safety (items 50-53)	30.9	1.4%	$105.74
50	Police	19.5	0.9%	$66.73
51	Fire	0	0.0%	$-
52	Law courts	6.9	0.3%	$23.61
53	Prisons	4.6	0.2%	$15.74
54	Economic affairs (items 55, 60, & 61)	115.9	5.2%	$396.62
55	Transportation (items 55–59)	31.8	1.4%	$108.82
56	Highways	1.1	0.0%	$3.76
57	Air	19.2	0.9%	$65.70
58	Water	9.8	0.4%	$33.54
59	Transit and railroad	1.8	0.1%	$6.16
60	Space	14.5	0.6%	$49.62
61	Other economic affairs (items 62-66)	69.6	3.1%	$238.18
62	General economic and labor affairs	14	0.6%	$47.91
63	Agriculture	25.9	1.2%	$88.63
64	Energy	13.4	0.6%	$45.86
65	Natural resources	16.4	0.7%	$56.12
66	Postal service	0	0.0%	$-
67	Housing and community services	41.3	1.8%	$141.33
68	Health	524.6	23.4%	$1,795.24
69	Recreation and culture	4.5	0.2%	$15.40
70	Education (items 71-73)	60.3	2.7%	$206.35
71	Elementary and secondary	28.4	1.3%	$97.19
72	Higher	18.1	0.8%	$61.94
73	Other	13.9	0.6%	$47.57
74	Income security (items 75-79)	740.1	33.0%	$2,532.71
75	Disability	102.7	4.6%	$351.45
76	Retirement	404.7	18.1%	$1,384.93
77	Welfare and social services	121.8	5.4%	$416.81
78	Unemployment	56.8	2.5%	$194.38
79	Other	54.1	2.4%	$185.14

I’ve become infatuated with using the BEA tables in recent months; there’s tons of useful data within them – good stuff to do research with.

If I’m not mistaken only the spending on items 43, 48, and 49 were authorized at the time the U.S. Constitution was being adopted (I could be wrong, and I’m sure someone will be quick to point it out if I am.) Notice that these items only represent 34% of the total federal spending!!

Now check out item 68. Do not ever let a Lefty get away with telling you that we should have universal health care…because it damned near seems as though we already do.

[CasearianDaoist]

We could use a break out of Science and Technology programs. For example, Does the "health" item line include both NIH science grants and Medicaid?

The is useful in establishing the level of "investment" gainst the level of welfare.

[Txslady]

Thanks for the link; very interesting

[LowCountryJoe]

Check the provided link on the word "here" in the original post. Then check table 3.17. Is that what you were looking for?

[CasearianDaoist]

Not really, but I will poke around. I was really just making a point about trying to decipher tables like this.

[expat_panama]

Dang Joe--great post!  Here I am trying to turn in and you go and get me thinking about numbers-- aw well.   I love those BEA sites too-- that and the BLS.   You got me thinking about what were spend our money on so I got these numbers from the GPO.

IMHO, if we could get rid of farm subsidies ("Income security"), Social Security, and Medicare we'd be doing pretty well.   FWIW, contrary to public opinion debt interest has been constant, and foreign aid has been negligible.

[LowCountryJoe]

Holy Shiite, I left some Kurds in my Sunnies because of that chart.

[LowCountryJoe]

This is the federal budget (in Excel format). The info you may be looking for on science and technology is in the 250 range (or somewhere between blocks 117 and 128 of the spreadsheet). The data for health is in the 550 range but specifically what I think you're looking for lies in spreadsheet block 532. Is that better?

I'm not sure that these budget links and spreadsheets are updated. In other words, I cannot be sure that these figures represent what actually was spent on certain areas of the government when 2004 finally came and went, they may have just been what was budgeted the year before. I suppose that I could have use 2003's but I happen to know that this particular link worked (from an earlier post several months back).

[maica]

What am I not understanding? The totals of all the percentages add up to 159.4%. I wanted to use the numbers to argue that we spend an exorbitant amount on Americans' health and welfare - which people like to deny - but I can't use these percents as is.

[LowCountryJoe]

I did not separate the sub spending line numbers. The line items that have parenthesis are counted twice.

[maica]

Thanks