{
  "generated_at": "2026-05-20",
  "scope": "Federal budget/spending map for the United States and Canada; values are rounded to nearest billion in national currency and reconciled to a whole-budget total.",
  "usa": {
    "fiscal_year": "FY2024 actual outlays",
    "unit": "USD billions",
    "total": 6752,
    "categories": [
      {
        "name": "Social Security",
        "value": 1454,
        "type": "mandatory"
      },
      {
        "name": "Health: Medicaid, ACA, public health",
        "value": 889,
        "type": "mandatory"
      },
      {
        "name": "Medicare",
        "value": 869,
        "type": "mandatory"
      },
      {
        "name": "National defense / military",
        "value": 874,
        "type": "defense"
      },
      {
        "name": "Net interest on federal debt",
        "value": 881,
        "type": "interest"
      },
      {
        "name": "Income security and safety net",
        "value": 671,
        "type": "mandatory"
      },
      {
        "name": "Veterans benefits and services",
        "value": 333,
        "type": "program"
      },
      {
        "name": "Education, training, employment, social services",
        "value": 209,
        "type": "program"
      },
      {
        "name": "Transportation",
        "value": 153,
        "type": "program"
      },
      {
        "name": "International affairs",
        "value": 77,
        "type": "program"
      },
      {
        "name": "Administration of justice",
        "value": 72,
        "type": "program"
      },
      {
        "name": "Community and regional development",
        "value": 70,
        "type": "program"
      },
      {
        "name": "Natural resources and environment",
        "value": 55,
        "type": "program"
      },
      {
        "name": "Agriculture",
        "value": 44,
        "type": "program"
      },
      {
        "name": "General science, space, technology",
        "value": 40,
        "type": "program"
      },
      {
        "name": "General government",
        "value": 36,
        "type": "program"
      },
      {
        "name": "Commerce and housing credit",
        "value": 26,
        "type": "program"
      },
      {
        "name": "Energy",
        "value": 12,
        "type": "program"
      },
      {
        "name": "Undistributed offsets and reconciliation",
        "value": -13,
        "type": "reconciliation"
      }
    ],
    "oversight_gaps": [
      {
        "name": "DoD audit black hole",
        "value": 874,
        "detail": "The national defense function contains the Pentagon, whose department-wide audit repeatedly receives a disclaimer or failed result; contractor-held property and disconnected logistics/finance ledgers remain major blind spots."
      },
      {
        "name": "Improper payments",
        "value": 236,
        "detail": "Federal improper-payment estimates remain in the hundreds of billions annually; pay-and-chase controls concentrate risk in Medicare, Medicaid, tax credits, unemployment and emergency programs."
      },
      {
        "name": "Sub-award drop-off",
        "value": null,
        "detail": "USAspending.gov traces prime awards well, but visibility often drops when money passes to subcontractors, local sub-grantees or forgiven emergency loans."
      }
    ]
  },
  "canada": {
    "fiscal_year": "Budget 2024 plan for 2024-25",
    "unit": "CAD billions",
    "total": 535.1,
    "categories": [
      {
        "name": "Federal operating, departments and Crown activities",
        "value": 131.6,
        "type": "program"
      },
      {
        "name": "Other transfer payments: Indigenous, infrastructure, business, climate",
        "value": 111.8,
        "type": "transfer"
      },
      {
        "name": "Major transfers to provinces, territories and municipalities",
        "value": 112.6,
        "type": "transfer"
      },
      {
        "name": "Elderly benefits",
        "value": 80.6,
        "type": "person"
      },
      {
        "name": "Public debt charges",
        "value": 54.1,
        "type": "interest"
      },
      {
        "name": "Employment Insurance benefits",
        "value": 24.0,
        "type": "person"
      },
      {
        "name": "Canada Child Benefit",
        "value": 27.5,
        "type": "person"
      },
      {
        "name": "Accounting reconciliation / net actuarial and other adjustments",
        "value": -7.1,
        "type": "reconciliation"
      }
    ],
    "defence_overlay": {
      "name": "National Defence / military inside departmental spending",
      "value": 33.8
    },
    "oversight_gaps": [
      {
        "name": "Provincial transfer firewall",
        "value": 112.6,
        "detail": "Federal health, social and equalization transfers mix with provincial general revenue; transaction-level tracing from Ottawa to individual hospital or service outcomes is not unified."
      },
      {
        "name": "Procurement opacity",
        "value": null,
        "detail": "Phoenix and ArriveCAN-style failures show how subcontracting layers, missing documentation and consultant chains can obscure who performed work and why they were selected."
      },
      {
        "name": "Emergency subsidy opacity",
        "value": null,
        "detail": "CERB/CEWS were paid rapidly; OAG and independent research flagged eligibility review gaps and weak disclosure of how wage subsidies were ultimately used by firms."
      }
    ]
  },
  "sources": [
    "https://www.usaspending.gov/",
    "https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/monthly-treasury-statement/summary-of-receipts-outlays-and-the-deficit-surplus-of-the-u-s-government",
    "https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/historical-tables/",
    "https://www.gao.gov/highrisk",
    "https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-106684",
    "https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/services/publications/federal-budget.html",
    "https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/government-info-base.html",
    "https://www.canada.ca/en/public-services-procurement/services/pay-pension/pay-administration/pay-centre-resources/phoenix-pay-system.html",
    "https://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/English/parl_oag_202402_01_e_44449.html",
    "https://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/English/parl_oag_202212_10_e_44166.html",
    "https://financesofthenation.ca/",
    "https://www.statista.com/"
  ]
}