(Both Medicaid and CHIP require states to pay some of their total costs.) In a typical month, Medicaid and CHIP provide health care or long-term care to about 87 million low-income children, parents, elderly people, and people with disabilities. The rest of this category funds the federal costs of Medicaid, CHIP, and ACA subsidy and marketplace costs. One-half of this amount, or $733 billion, goes to Medicare, which provides health coverage to around 80 million people who are aged 65 and older or have disabilities. Health insurance: Four health insurance programs - Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace health insurance subsidies - together account for 25 percent of the budget in 2022, or $1.4 trillion.Social Security also expects to provide benefits to 3 million spouses and children of retired workers, 6 million surviving children and spouses of deceased workers, and 9 million disabled workers and their eligible dependents. Social Security: In 2022, 21 percent of the budget, or $1.2 trillion, will be paid for Social Security, which will provide monthly retirement benefits averaging $1,538 to 49 million retired workers.As the chart below shows, three major areas of spending make up the majority of the budget: The remaining amount will be financed by net borrowing. Of that $5.8 trillion, over $4.8 trillion is estimated to be financed by federal revenues.

In fiscal year 2022, the federal government is estimated to spend $5.8 trillion, amounting to 23.5 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Budget percentages breakdown