Federal Budget: Interest Payments Reach $750B

By Staff of SchiffGold

Tuesday, February 13, 2024 2:24 PM EST

Federal Budget

The Federal Government publishes the spending and revenue numbers every month. The charts and tables below give an in-depth review of the Federal Budget, showing where the money is coming from, where it is going, and the surplus or deficit.

This month saw a $22B deficit.

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Figure: 1 Monthly Federal Budget

$22B may not seem like a lot, but January is historically a month with a surplus. That said, four of the last five years have seen January realize a deficit.

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Figure: 2 Historical Deficit/Surplus for January

January is the only month other than April that has historically averaged a surplus.

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Figure: 3 Current vs Historical

The two Sankey diagrams below show the distribution of spending and revenue for the month and the trailing twelve months.

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Figure: 4 Monthly Federal Budget Sankey

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Figure: 5 TTM Federal Budget Sankey

The next two charts show the monthly revenue and costs broken down by expense type.

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Figure: 6 Monthly Receipts

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Figure: 7 Monthly Outlays

Interest Expense has ballooned higher with the Fed’s push to raise rates.

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Figure: 8 TTM Interest Expense

The table below goes deeper into the numbers of each category.

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Figure: 9 US Budget Detail

Historical Perspective

Zooming out and looking over the history of the budget back to 1980 shows a complete picture. The change since Covid has been quite dramatic.

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Figure: 10 Trailing 12 Months (TTM)

The next two charts zoom in on the recent periods to show the change when compared to pre-Covid. These charts show spending and revenue on a trailing 12-month basis period over period.

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