Econintersect: The CBO (Congressional Budget Office) has released some infographics on the details of Federal spending in 2011. Here (below “Read more…”) we post the presentation on the discretionary spending by the government, spending that was decided for the 2011 fiscal year and was not determined by prior legislation that also included mandatory spending. A manditory spending infographic was posted two days ago.
Discretionary spending has not risen as a portion of GDP compared to twenty years ago:
Here is the CBO statement about discretionary spending:
The federal government spent $3.6 trillion in fiscal year 2011 (which ended on September 30, 2011). Discretionary spending, which is governed by annual appropriation acts, totaled about $1.3 trillion, or 37 percent of all federal outlays.
Below is the full infographic. Click (twice) on graphic for a larger image.
Source: CBO