WikiLeaks Document Release http://wikileaks.org/wiki/CRS-RS22508 February 2, 2009 Congressional Research Service Report RS22508 Spending and Receipts in FY2006, by Time Period Philip D. Winters, Government and Finance Division April 20, 2007 Abstract. The federal government collected $2.407 trillion and spent $2.655 trillion in FY2006. These dollar amounts are so large compared to the amounts that most policy makers and citizens encounter in their daily lives that the magnitudes may lose their significance. Over the years, congressional staff and Members have looked for more understandable measures or comprehensible comparisons. This report attempts to provide some of those measures. Order Code RS22508 Updated April 20, 2007 Spending and Receipts in FY2006, by Time Period Philip D. Winters Analyst in Government Finance Government and Finance Division Summary The federal government collected $2.407 trillion and spent $2.655 trillion in http://wikileaks.org/wiki/CRS-RS22508 FY2006. These dollar amounts are so large compared to the amounts that most policy makers and citizens encounter in their daily lives that the magnitudes may lose their significance. Over the years, congressional staff and Members have looked for more understandable measures or comprehensible comparisons. This report attempts to provide some of those measures. This report will be updated as new annual budget data become available. The data in this report are designed to make the very large numbers of dollars that the federal government spends and collects each year somewhat more understandable. Table 1 divides total FY2006 spending and receipts into various time units (months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds). By showing how much the government spends or collects, especially per second, the dollar amounts become recognizable in personal and intuitive ways. During FY2006, the government spent about $84,200 and collected $76,300 every second.1 The government borrowed $7,867 a second to fund the deficit in FY2006. The spending and receipts by second compare to the annual median income for households of $46,326 (in 2005, the most recent data available).2 Household median income was 55% of what the federal government spent each second and 61% of what the government collected each second. It would take about 21½ years for a household with median income to generate $1 million; it takes the government 11.9 seconds to spend $1 million and 13.1 seconds for it to collect $1 million. 1 This is based on a 365-day year, including weekends and holidays. The numbers would be larger if weekends and federal holidays were excluded. Under this "work day" year (with fewer days), the government spent about $122,000 and collected $110,600 a second. 2 Census Bureau data. CRS-2 Table 2 includes the spending annually and each second for selected categories of federal activity, including Social Security, defense, non-defense discretionary activities, Medicare, other mandatory spending, and net interest. The spending per second for these activities ranged from $17,247 for Social Security to $5,728 for Medicaid. Table 1. Spending and Receipts in FY2006, by Time Period Spending Receipts Time Period (in dollars or time) (in dollars or time) Per year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2,655,435,000,000 $2,407,254,000,000 Per month . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221,286,250,000 200,604,500,000 Per week . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51,066,057,692 46,293,346,154 Per day (365 per year) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,275,164,384 6,595,216,438 Per hour (8,760 per year) . . . . . . . . . . . 303,131,849 274,800,685 Per minute (525,600 per year) . . . . . . . 5,052,197 4,580,011 Per second (31,536,000 per year) . . . . 84,203 76,334 http://wikileaks.org/wiki/CRS-RS22508 Number of seconds to spend or collect $1 million . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.9 13.1 Number of hours to spend or collect $1 billion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3 3.6 Number of minutes to add $1 million to the deficit . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 Table 2. Spending in FY2006, by Major Activity Per Year Per Second Activity (in dollars) (in dollars) Social Security a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $543,911,000,000 $17,247 Defense b . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519,974,000,000 16,488 Non-defense discretionary b . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496,714,000,000 15,751 Other mandatory a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362,729,000,000 11,502 Medicare a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324,879,000,000 10,302 Net interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226,603,000,000 7,186 Medicaid a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180,625,000,000 5,728 Note: Data for both tables are from OMB, Budget of the United States Government for FY2008, Historical Tables, February 2007. CRS calculations. a. The mandatory spending portion of these activities. b. The discretionary spending portion of these activities.