Obama’s 2011 budget: US public spending by department since 1962
Barack Obama’s second budget is already controversial. Find out what it means for each department, how it compares to George Bush’s last one – and how it’s changed since 1962
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After a while they just appear to be unimaginably big numbers. By early 2011, the US government will have spent $3.8 trillion in one year.
President Barack Obama projected the US budget deficit would peak at a new record in 2010 – before easing as he pushes for fiscal responsibility while battling double-digit unemployment. “We won’t be able to bring down this deficit overnight, given that the recovery is still taking hold,” Obama said, laying out $3.8 trillion in spending plans for the fiscal year to end of September, 2011.
It’s not set in stone – Congress has the power to change it. It also forcasts a $1.56 trillion deficit in 2010. That’s or 10.6% of the economy measured by gross domestic product (GDP). This funding gap was forecast to dip to $1.27 trillion in 2011, or 8.3 percent of GDP, and fall to roughly half that as a share of the economy in the final year of Obama’s term in 2012, meeting a key pledge.
So what does that mean for US public spending – besides cuts for Nasa? We’ve extracted the key figures from the White House Office of Management and Budget. It shows spending by department back to 1962 – and ahead to 2015. The summary is below but click on the spreadsheet link for the full data.
We’ve worked out the changes since bush’s last budget – the 2009 figures. What can you do with it?
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• DATA: download the full datasheet, 1962-2015
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Data summary
