Department of Government Efficiency: US Federal Spending in Maps, Charts

Despite Donald Trump’s announcement of his plans to introduce a Department of Government Efficiency, the proportion of money the U.S. government spends appears to be similar to that of other developed nations.
The president-elect announced on his social media platform Truth Social that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy would head up the new committee, otherwise known as “DOGE,” in a reference to the dogecoin cryptocurrency, of which Musk is a huge fan.
Trump said that the so-called department “will provide advice and guidance from outside of Government, and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget.”
In light of the announcement, Newsweek has taken a dive into what the U.S. government’s spending looks like.
According to data from the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. government appears to spend a similar proportion of its income to other countries across the globe.
Based on 2022 data, the U.S. government spent 36.26 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), a lower percentage than that of a number of countries in Europe.
Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Poland, the United Kingdom, Finland and Sweden all spent a greater proportion of their GDP than America that year. This was also the case for Canada and Japan.
The U.S. government spent a similar proportion of its GDP to countries including Russia, China, Mongolia and Australia.
America therefore sits in an average range of government spending on the global stage.
Concerns surrounding how much money the U.S. government was spending increased in August when it was reported that national debt in the U.S. exceeded $35.26 trillion, according to U.S. Treasury Department data, which is the highest in absolute terms it has ever been.
This amounts to about $100,000 per person in a nation with around 337 million people, and debt has become the second greatest government expense, according to the independent outlet Natural News.
In 2023, U.S. government spending was higher than its revenue by a difference of around $2 trillion, according to USA Facts.
While this year debt was reported as the second greatest government expense, in 2023 it amounted to 11 percent of the government’s expenditure, per the outlet.
Social security was the highest cost for the government at $1.35 trillion, followed by national defense and Medicare.
Meanwhile, its main sources of revenue came from individual tax incomes and payroll taxes.
The U.S. government’s spending dramatically increased between 2019 and 2020, and over the course of the subsequent three years, it gradually decreased, fiscal data from the U.S. Treasury shows.
However, in the past year, there has been another increase in the amount of money the U.S. government is spending.
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