what does the us government spend the most money on
United States federal budget During FY2016, the federal government spent $3.85 trillion on a budget or cash basis, up $164 billion or 4% vs. FY2015 spending of $3.69 trillion. Major categories of FY 2016 spending included: Healthcare such as Medicare and Medicaid ($1,060B or 28% of spending), Social Security ($910B or 24%), non-defense discretionary spending used to run federal Departments and Agencies ($600B or 16%), Defense Department ($585B or 15%), and interest ($240B or 6%).[1]
Military budget of the United States The military budget is the portion of the discretionary United States federal budget allocated to the Department of Defense, or more broadly, the portion of the budget that goes to any military-related expenditures. The military budget pays the salaries, training, and health care of uniformed and civilian personnel, maintains arms, equipment and facilities, funds operations, and develops and buys new equipment. The budget funds 4 branches of the U.S. military: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force. In FY 2015, Pentagon and related spending totaled $598 billion, about 54% of the fiscal year 2015 U.S. discretionary budget. For FY 2017, President Obama proposed the base budget of $523.9 billion, which includes an increase of $2.2 billion over the FY 2016 enacted budget of $521.7 billion.