Spending and Receipts in FY2006, by Time Period

Spending and Receipts in FY2006,
by Time Period
Philip D. Winters
Analyst in Government Finance
Government and Finance Division
Summary
The federal government collected $2.407 trillion and spent $2.655 trillion in
FY2006. These dollar amounts are so large compared to the amounts that most policy
makers and citizens encounter in their daily lives that the magnitudes may lose their
significance. Over the years, congressional staff and Members have looked for more
understandable measures or comprehensible comparisons. This report attempts to
provide some of those measures.
This report will be updated as new annual budget data become available.
The data in this report are designed to make the very large numbers of dollars that
the federal government spends and collects each year somewhat more understandable.
Table 1 divides total FY2006 spending and receipts into various time units (months,
weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds). By showing how much the government spends
or collects, especially per second, the dollar amounts become recognizable in personal and
intuitive ways.
During FY2006, the government spent about $84,200 and collected $76,300 every¹
second. The government borrowed $7,867 a second to fund the deficit in FY2006. The
spending and receipts by second compare to the annual median income for households of²
$46,326 (in 2005, the most recent data available). Household median income was 55%
of what the federal government spent each second and 61% of what the government
collected each second. It would take about 21½ years for a household with median
income to generate $1 million; it takes the government 11.9 seconds to spend $1 million
and 13.1 seconds for it to collect $1 million.

¹ This is based on a 365-day year, including weekends and holidays. The numbers would be
larger if weekends and federal holidays were excluded. Under this “work day” year (with fewer
days), the government spent about $122,000 and collected $110,600 a second.
² Census Bureau data.

Table 2 includes the spending annually and each second for selected categories of
federal activity, including Social Security, defense, non-defense discretionary activities,
Medicare, other mandatory spending, and net interest. The spending per second for these
activities ranged from $17,247 for Social Security to $5,728 for Medicaid.
Table 1. Spending and Receipts in FY2006, by Time Period
Time PeriodSpending(in dollars or time)Receipts(in dollars or time)
Per year........................$2,655,435,000,000$2,407,254,000,000
Per month.......................221,286,250,000200,604,500,000
Per week........................51,066,057,69246,293,346,154
Per day (365 per year).............7,275,164,3846,595,216,438
Per hour (8,760 per year)...........303,131,849274,800,685
Per minute (525,600 per year).......5,052,1974,580,011
Per second (31,536,000 per year)....84,20376,334
Number of seconds to spend or collect
$1 million................11.913.1
Number of hours to spend or collect
$1 billion.................3.33.6
Number of minutes to add $1 million to the deficit............2.1
Table 2. Spending in FY2006, by Major Activity
ActivityPer Year(in dollars)Per Second(in dollars)
Social Security ^a........................$543,911,000,000$17,247
Defense ^b.............................519,974,000,00016,488
Non-defense discretionary ^b...............496,714,000,00015,751
Other mandatory ^a......................362,729,000,00011,502
Medicare ^a............................324,879,000,00010,302
Net interest............................226,603,000,000 7,186
Medicaid ^a............................180,625,000,000 5,728
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