A dense, Statista-inspired map of federal spending in the United States and Canada. Every dollar is forced into a category: benefits, transfers, military, debt interest, operating programs, offsets, and reconciliation lines. The second layer shows the audit “black holes” where the published total exists but the final recipient, subcontractor, local use, or physical outcome becomes hard to trace.
The U.S. categories follow the federal budget-function view: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid/health, defense, interest and remaining civilian functions. Undistributed offsetting receipts (a negative line) keep the full outlay map equal to the reported total; categories are rounded.
| # | Category | Outlays | Share | Visual share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Social Securitymandatory | $1,461B USD | 21.6% | |
| 02 | Health: Medicaid, ACA, public healthmandatory | $912B USD | 13.5% | |
| 03 | Net interest on federal debtinterest | $882B USD | 13.1% | |
| 04 | Medicaremandatory | $874B USD | 12.9% | |
| 05 | National defense / militarydefense | $874B USD | 12.9% | |
| 06 | Income security and safety netmandatory | $671B USD | 9.9% | |
| 07 | Veterans benefits and servicesprogram | $325B USD | 4.8% | |
| 08 | Education, training, employment, social servicesprogram | $305B USD | 4.5% | |
| 09 | Transportationprogram | $137B USD | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Community and regional developmentprogram | $87.8B USD | 1.3% | |
| 11 | Administration of justiceprogram | $85.0B USD | 1.3% | |
| 12 | International affairsprogram | $72.0B USD | 1.1% | |
| 13 | Natural resources and environmentprogram | $56.9B USD | 0.8% | |
| 14 | General science, space, technologyprogram | $41.6B USD | 0.6% | |
| 15 | Commerce and housing creditprogram | $35.6B USD | 0.5% | |
| 16 | Agricultureprogram | $34.7B USD | 0.5% | |
| 17 | General governmentprogram | $29.9B USD | 0.4% | |
| 18 | Energyprogram | $13.8B USD | 0.2% | |
| 19 | Undistributed offsetting receiptsreconciliation | −$147B USD | -2.2% |
Military overlay: National Defence / Canadian Armed Forces spending is approximately $33.8B CAD inside federal departmental operating and capital spending, not a separate top-level Budget 2024 expense family.
Canada’s federal budget is dominated by transfers to people, transfers to provinces and territories, departmental operating programs, other grants/contributions, and debt charges. Provincial delivery creates a built-in tracing gap after some federal transfers cross the constitutional boundary.
| # | Category | Expenses | Share | Visual share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Operating expenses: departments, agencies and Crown activitiesprogram | $123B CAD | 22.9% | |
| 02 | Major transfers to provinces, territories and municipalitiestransfer | $106B CAD | 19.6% | |
| 03 | Other transfer payments: Indigenous, infrastructure, business, climatetransfer | $102B CAD | 18.9% | |
| 04 | Elderly benefitsperson | $80.6B CAD | 15.0% | |
| 05 | Public debt chargesinterest | $54.1B CAD | 10.1% | |
| 06 | Canada Child Benefitperson | $28.1B CAD | 5.2% | |
| 07 | Employment Insurance benefitsperson | $26.6B CAD | 4.9% | |
| 08 | Pollution pricing proceeds returned to Canadianstransfer | $14.9B CAD | 2.8% | |
| 09 | Net actuarial lossesreconciliation | $3.1B CAD | 0.6% |
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.
Agencies estimated $162B in improper payments for FY2024 (down from $236B in FY2023, mostly as COVID-era programs ended; GAO-25-107753); pay-and-chase controls concentrate risk in Medicare, Medicaid, tax credits, unemployment and emergency programs.
USAspending.gov traces prime awards well, but visibility often drops when money passes to subcontractors, local sub-grantees or forgiven emergency loans.
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.
Phoenix and ArriveCAN-style failures show how subcontracting layers, missing documentation and consultant chains can obscure who performed work and why they were selected.
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.
This page incorporates the official and independent source families requested: USAspending.gov, GC InfoBase, GAO, OAG, OpenTheBooks/Good Jobs First-style oversight, Finances of the Nation, Budget 2024, U.S. Treasury/OMB budget tables, and the cited research on improper payments, DoD audits, pandemic supports, corporate subsidies and federal-provincial transfer firewalls.
Design inspiration: Statista-style dense hierarchy, big-number lead blocks, ranked bars, category colours, compact tables and source-ledger transparency.
Figures last verified 2026-10-16. U.S. outlays: U.S. Treasury Monthly Treasury Statement, Table 9, September 2024 fiscal-year-to-date (fiscaldata.treasury.gov); improper payments: GAO-25-107753. Canada: Department of Finance Canada, Budget 2024, Annex 1, Table A1.7 “The Expense Outlook” (2024-25 projection; total expenses $537.6B; listed components sum to $537.7B because of rounding): budget.canada.ca/2024/report-rapport/anx1-en.html. Shares are calculated on the published total. Generated data snapshot: budget_spending_sources.json.
This section is deliberately separated from the economic data above. Treat it as satirical commentary from Everybody Is A News Critic, not as a source, audit finding, or financial claim.
The government gives you a one-line receipt for a trillion-dollar dinner and calls the missing itemization “intergovernmental complexity.”
Some spending is so flexible it can stretch from an approved budget line to a subcontractor nobody can explain without pulling a hamstring.
Watch carefully: the money leaves Ottawa or Washington, enters a program, and—poof—the public trail asks you to check six different portals.