The US spent $882 billion just on the interest on its debt last year. kinda mad.
I’m sure the comment section will be full of full and frank open-hearted and warm debate !
Source: US Treasury
Tool: Sankey Matic
hepgiu on
this is disgusting
eat the rich
phrique on
This shows you why people focusing on the discretionary spending are missing the point with the US budget. Unless the government is actually willing to make changes to Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and Defense, there’s no way to get out of this ~2T deficit problem, and because the legislature has shown no real interest in doing so, that line item for debt interest is only going to get worse.
TSSalamander on
That 1.8 is literally just old people huh.
~~Medicaid~~ Medicare and Social Security
Weazelfish on
It really needs to be pointed out that the US actively *wants* to have debts. It’s a way to entangle economies; to make it so that other countries have a vested financial interest in their continued stability; and it’s part of a wider project to make the US dollar the de facto currency of the world. Nations are not households.
M_Mirror_2023 on
How is all US corporate tax less than the interest on government debt. What a tax haven lol.
SodaPop6548 on
This really proves that corporations don’t pay their fair share.
Mahoganychicken on
Can someone explain to me how the second biggest expenditure can be healthcare, but there is still health insurance and no universal free healthcare? Seems wildly inefficient.
Moneyshot_ITF on
Corporate taxes are at rookie numbers
KissmySPAC on
Good thing we are slashing those little things at the bottom. That will make a big difference. /s
MikeHillEngineer on
I feel like the left side should be bigger. Those Corporation Taxes look awful small.
Penises4Eyes on
Don’t worry a certain political party in the US thinks removing income tax will solve it!
Drach88 on
Don’t worry, guys, Elon says he saved us $150 billion by the end of 2026.
tanknav on
So in very rough numbers, if we doubled all taxes and held spending constant we could pay off the national debt in 10 years. This would eliminate the $882B/yr interest payment, and taxes could be then dropped back to near (but still marginally higher) than 2024 rates with an overall balanced budget.
Starbucks__Lovers on
Wow if only there wasn’t an income ceiling for social security taxes
okb_1 on
Don’t worry y’all, Elon fixed it!
/s
electrikmayham on
Our interest was almost half of the deficit.
lettercrank on
I find the fact that corporate taxes are so small laughable. Tax the rich and solve the problem
homebrew_1 on
Iook how little corporations pay.
DJBeRight on
Looks like those corporate taxes are a little light
JaracRassen77 on
This is about to blow all the way up if Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill passes the Senate. They aren’t even trying to pay for it, and there are no investments in it. Just tax cuts.
AstroRanger36 on
Once again lumping insurance programs in with revenue/spending is disingenuous.
adaza on
Why is social security on the payables side but not on the revenue side?
fail-deadly- on
As an American, I really think we’re headed for a Soviet Union style economic collapse in the fairly near future barring a complete reversal in decades of political behavior
Cutting taxes thinking it leads to higher revenues is magical thinking at this point.
Secure-Abroad1718 on
Is there a place where I can find these infographics for each fiscal year going back, say 10 years or so?
Hav3_Y0u_M3t_T3d on
Fucking nuts that we spend more on Interest than national defense. What the fuck man. And they’re all up in arms about student loans. Gtfo
Moregaze on
Is SS contributions a part of the Payroll Taxes, or is that just repayment of the bonds that the SS admin buys to hedge against inflation?
batch1972 on
Why so little from corporations?
skhds on
The main problem seems to be the money spent healthcare and medicare. If that much is spent, US shouldn’t have the kind of medical insurance problems they are having right now. There is definitely something stealing the money in the middle.
Matzebob on
Imagine how this chart would look like, if Elmo and his Broligarchs would be equally taxed on their assets as every other normal citizen with a five figure income. Same for corporations like Amazon and Co.
CharlieBoxCutter on
Is social security tax included in income tax?
ExcellentWinner7542 on
Now, the interest on the debt is like $1.36 trillion all by itself.
abaoabao2010 on
2.4 trillion individual income tax.
530 billion corporation tax
generatorland on
That Corporation Taxes bit looks awfully small to me.
EscapeFacebook on
Social Security is self-funded why is it considered an expenditure? That’s just misleading.
bigdog782 on
It amazes me how much people are focusing on the left side of the visual but not the right side.
Since the early 1900’s, the U.S. government has never been able to consistently collect more than ~17.5% of the country’s GDP as a federal tax receipt. In 2024 the federal government collected ~16.8%. There is pretty sound monetary theory that this level is effectively the ceiling of what the government can collect without it being counterproductive over the long term.
Meanwhile, federal spending as a % of GDP has steadily increased over that same time span, except for the 1990’s where it declined. The 1990’s were also the last time the U.S. successfully balanced its budget.
There are many things on the right side of the visual that can be addressed on the margins.
african_cheetah on
Defense so small. Needs a few more trillions.
Corporation taxes line is so big. It needs some cuts.
iknowsomeguy on
You need to rename this post if you want it to be accurate. There hasn’t been a budget in a very long time.
Hot-Food-7151 on
What’s income security? This is just shit you could easily get 2T by raising corp taxes and decreasing defense. We are just making the top 5 defense companies rich. Johnny Harris did a YouTube video on it and is just disgusting. We know our health system is broke too. If you could stop the greedy oligarchy with better controls in health care costs and defense spending. Had a federal guy working for the military apply for a role at my city and he said if we don’t spend it we lose it. My boss had to tell him that we can’t do that, we by law have to have a balanced budget. Like any good policy if we are not bringing in the money then we are not spending. They should make federal & state bond issuances a general vote like the do county & local.
octopus-opinion987 on
Payroll taxes are for SS, Medicare and unemployment insurance.
Federal Payroll Taxes:
Social Security: Funds retirement, disability, and survivor benefits. The current tax rate is 12.4% of earnings, with employers and employees each paying 6.2%.
Medicare: Funds healthcare benefits for seniors and certain disabled individuals. The tax rate is 2.9% of earnings, split evenly between employers and employees (1.45% each).
Additional Medicare Tax: A 0.9% surtax on earnings above a certain threshold ($200,000 for single filers, $250,000 for married couples filing jointly), paid by employees only.
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA): Funds unemployment benefits for those who lose their jobs. It’s paid solely by employers, at a rate of 6% on the first $7,000 of each employee’s wages. Employers typically receive a credit for state unemployment taxes paid, reducing the effective FUTA rate.
better-off-wet on
Eisenhower was right about the military industrial complex
flappinginthewind69 on
I love that everyone here has got a single sentence fix to the budget issue…it’s so easy!
majestiq on
I hate seeing a budget like this. Social security and Medicare should both be broken out independently. Since they have their own separate tax. Those items are not in defect spending. Then the payroll tax should be shown with the rest of government spending.
![The US Government’s Budget Last Year, In One Chart (FY2024) [OC]](https://www.byteseu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/nqols3q5jb2f1-1536x1532.png "The US Government’s Budget Last Year, In One Chart (FY2024) [OC]")
43 Comments
The US spent $882 billion just on the interest on its debt last year. kinda mad.
I’m sure the comment section will be full of full and frank open-hearted and warm debate !
Source: US Treasury
Tool: Sankey Matic
this is disgusting
eat the rich
This shows you why people focusing on the discretionary spending are missing the point with the US budget. Unless the government is actually willing to make changes to Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and Defense, there’s no way to get out of this ~2T deficit problem, and because the legislature has shown no real interest in doing so, that line item for debt interest is only going to get worse.
That 1.8 is literally just old people huh.
~~Medicaid~~ Medicare and Social Security
It really needs to be pointed out that the US actively *wants* to have debts. It’s a way to entangle economies; to make it so that other countries have a vested financial interest in their continued stability; and it’s part of a wider project to make the US dollar the de facto currency of the world. Nations are not households.
How is all US corporate tax less than the interest on government debt. What a tax haven lol.
This really proves that corporations don’t pay their fair share.
Can someone explain to me how the second biggest expenditure can be healthcare, but there is still health insurance and no universal free healthcare? Seems wildly inefficient.
Corporate taxes are at rookie numbers
Good thing we are slashing those little things at the bottom. That will make a big difference. /s
I feel like the left side should be bigger. Those Corporation Taxes look awful small.
Don’t worry a certain political party in the US thinks removing income tax will solve it!
Don’t worry, guys, Elon says he saved us $150 billion by the end of 2026.
So in very rough numbers, if we doubled all taxes and held spending constant we could pay off the national debt in 10 years. This would eliminate the $882B/yr interest payment, and taxes could be then dropped back to near (but still marginally higher) than 2024 rates with an overall balanced budget.
Wow if only there wasn’t an income ceiling for social security taxes
Don’t worry y’all, Elon fixed it!
/s
Our interest was almost half of the deficit.
I find the fact that corporate taxes are so small laughable. Tax the rich and solve the problem
Iook how little corporations pay.
Looks like those corporate taxes are a little light
This is about to blow all the way up if Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill passes the Senate. They aren’t even trying to pay for it, and there are no investments in it. Just tax cuts.
Once again lumping insurance programs in with revenue/spending is disingenuous.
Why is social security on the payables side but not on the revenue side?
As an American, I really think we’re headed for a Soviet Union style economic collapse in the fairly near future barring a complete reversal in decades of political behavior
Cutting taxes thinking it leads to higher revenues is magical thinking at this point.
Is there a place where I can find these infographics for each fiscal year going back, say 10 years or so?
Fucking nuts that we spend more on Interest than national defense. What the fuck man. And they’re all up in arms about student loans. Gtfo
Is SS contributions a part of the Payroll Taxes, or is that just repayment of the bonds that the SS admin buys to hedge against inflation?
Why so little from corporations?
The main problem seems to be the money spent healthcare and medicare. If that much is spent, US shouldn’t have the kind of medical insurance problems they are having right now. There is definitely something stealing the money in the middle.
Imagine how this chart would look like, if Elmo and his Broligarchs would be equally taxed on their assets as every other normal citizen with a five figure income. Same for corporations like Amazon and Co.
Is social security tax included in income tax?
Now, the interest on the debt is like $1.36 trillion all by itself.
2.4 trillion individual income tax.
530 billion corporation tax
That Corporation Taxes bit looks awfully small to me.
Social Security is self-funded why is it considered an expenditure? That’s just misleading.
It amazes me how much people are focusing on the left side of the visual but not the right side.
Since the early 1900’s, the U.S. government has never been able to consistently collect more than ~17.5% of the country’s GDP as a federal tax receipt. In 2024 the federal government collected ~16.8%. There is pretty sound monetary theory that this level is effectively the ceiling of what the government can collect without it being counterproductive over the long term.
Meanwhile, federal spending as a % of GDP has steadily increased over that same time span, except for the 1990’s where it declined. The 1990’s were also the last time the U.S. successfully balanced its budget.
There are many things on the right side of the visual that can be addressed on the margins.
Defense so small. Needs a few more trillions.
Corporation taxes line is so big. It needs some cuts.
You need to rename this post if you want it to be accurate. There hasn’t been a budget in a very long time.
What’s income security? This is just shit you could easily get 2T by raising corp taxes and decreasing defense. We are just making the top 5 defense companies rich. Johnny Harris did a YouTube video on it and is just disgusting. We know our health system is broke too. If you could stop the greedy oligarchy with better controls in health care costs and defense spending. Had a federal guy working for the military apply for a role at my city and he said if we don’t spend it we lose it. My boss had to tell him that we can’t do that, we by law have to have a balanced budget. Like any good policy if we are not bringing in the money then we are not spending. They should make federal & state bond issuances a general vote like the do county & local.
Payroll taxes are for SS, Medicare and unemployment insurance.
Federal Payroll Taxes:
Social Security: Funds retirement, disability, and survivor benefits. The current tax rate is 12.4% of earnings, with employers and employees each paying 6.2%.
Medicare: Funds healthcare benefits for seniors and certain disabled individuals. The tax rate is 2.9% of earnings, split evenly between employers and employees (1.45% each).
Additional Medicare Tax: A 0.9% surtax on earnings above a certain threshold ($200,000 for single filers, $250,000 for married couples filing jointly), paid by employees only.
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA): Funds unemployment benefits for those who lose their jobs. It’s paid solely by employers, at a rate of 6% on the first $7,000 of each employee’s wages. Employers typically receive a credit for state unemployment taxes paid, reducing the effective FUTA rate.
Eisenhower was right about the military industrial complex
I love that everyone here has got a single sentence fix to the budget issue…it’s so easy!
I hate seeing a budget like this. Social security and Medicare should both be broken out independently. Since they have their own separate tax. Those items are not in defect spending. Then the payroll tax should be shown with the rest of government spending.