The numbers are so large, it’s hard to wrap your head around them sometimes…

The U.S. national debt now stands at over $35 trillion, equating to approximately $106,000 per person.

The debt continues to rise due to structural factors such as an aging population, increasing healthcare costs, and insufficient tax revenues, contributing to ongoing budget deficits.

And especially concerning to many investors and ordinary Americans, interest on the debt is becoming one of the fastest-growing components of federal spending, further stressing the fiscal outlook.

In the above slides, we’ll walk through the various department spending the most money. For this data set, we’ll be looking at the numbers provided by the U.S. Treasury for August 2024.

Overall, in August, the federal government ran a budget deficit of $380 billion, a stark contrast to the $89 billion surplus in August 2023. However, the jump can be easily explained. This shift was largely due to two key factors: a $330 billion reduction in outlays in 2023 related to the Supreme Court’s decision on student debt cancellation and a timing shift in payments to August 2024. Adjusting for these factors, the deficit was $58 billion higher than the previous year.

As you’ll see in the slide, the outlays totaled $687 billion – so let’s take a look at the specific departments doing the spending.

Executive Office of the President

• August Outlay (in millions): 74

Small Business Administration

• August Outlay (in millions): 222

General Services Administration

• August Outlay (in millions): 234

Department of the Interior

• August Outlay (in millions): 359

Legislative Branch

• August Outlay (in millions): 593

Judicial Branch

• August Outlay (in millions): 889

Corps of Engineers

• August Outlay (in millions): 1,058

National Science Foundation

• August Outlay (in millions): 1,058

Environmental Protection Agency

• August Outlay (in millions): 1,342

Department of Commerce

• August Outlay (in millions): 1,434

International Assistance Programs

• August Outlay (in millions): 1,771

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

• August Outlay (in millions): 2,155

Department of State

• August Outlay (in millions): 3,425

Department of Justice

• August Outlay (in millions): 3,661

Independent Agencies

• August Outlay (in millions): 4,419

Department of Energy

• August Outlay (in millions): 4,545

Department of Housing and Urban Development

• August Outlay (in millions): 6,134

Department of Homeland Security

• August Outlay (in millions): 6,890

Office of Personnel Management

• August Outlay (in millions): 9,686

Department of Transportation

• August Outlay (in millions): 11,242

Department of Labor

• August Outlay (in millions): 11,437

Other Defense Civil Programs

• August Outlay (in millions): 11,865

Department of Agriculture

• August Outlay (in millions): 14,990

Other from the Department of the Treasury

• August Outlay (in millions): 15,423

Department of Education

• August Outlay (in millions): 38,894

Department of Veterans Affairs

• August Outlay (in millions): 45,267

Department of Defense–Military Programs

• August Outlay (in millions): 78,749

Interest on Treasury Debt Securities (Gross)

• August Outlay (in millions): 92,293

Social Security Administration

• August Outlay (in millions): 134,485

Department of Health and Human Services

• August Outlay (in millions): 201,788

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