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Where Washington’s money went in fiscal 2026 | The Receipts - media kit | The Receipts - Dataspheres AI

The fiscal year runs from October to September, and the Treasury publishes the final tally a couple of weeks after it ends. Watch Where Washington’s money ...

The fiscal year runs from October to September, and the Treasury publishes the final tally a couple of weeks after it ends. Watch Where Washington’s money went in fiscal 2026 (3 min), with captions The stories Fiscal 2026 in three numbers The fiscal year just closed, and the Treasury took in $5.4 trillion. It spent $7.4 trillion, and borrowed $1.99 trillion to cover the gap. Washington spent far more than it took in. Where the money came from, and where it went Here is the whole year in one picture. On the left, where the money came from: income taxes, payroll taxes, corporate taxes, tariffs. And one band that is not a tax at all. Borrowing was the second-biggest source, nearly 2 trillion dollars. On the right, where it went. Interest on the debt took more than a trillion dollars. The five biggest bills Five bills top the list, and Social Security is the biggest. Then Medicare, interest on the debt and health programs, each just over a trillion dollars. Interest is now the third-biggest bill, ahead of defense. Interest passed defense Here is the turn. Net interest on the debt came to $1.05 trillion. National defense cost $965 billion. Interest grew 8% in a year, and the government now pays more in interest than on the military. How borrowing turns into interest How does borrowing become a bill? When spending runs above receipts, the Treasury borrows the difference. It sells bills, notes and bonds, and lenders pay cash for them. Every year it pays interest on what it owes, and that interest is spending too. So borrowing today widens tomorrow’s gap, and the borrowing need grows. Who decides what Washington spends Who decides any of this? The President proposes a budget, and the Office of Management and Budget prepares it. Congress decides. Its appropriations committees write the spending bills, and the Congressional Budget Office scores them. Then the Treasury pays the bills, and borrows to cover the gap. What the interest bill depends on The interest bill moves with two numbers. The size of the debt, $32.4 trillion held by the public at the end of September, and the rate on it, about 3.5%. Raise either one and the bill rises with it. That is a simple estimate, not a forecast. For every dollar it collected, Washington borrowed 37 cents more. For every dollar it collected, Washington borrowed 37 cents more. And the interest on that borrowing is already bigger than the defense budget. Stay up to date with Dataspheres AI To stay up to date, sign up for Dataspheres AI. The Dataspheres AI Weekly follows this story and the week's other big ones. Scan the code on screen to sign up. Listen The episode as audio Download and post Every file of this edition, with its ready-to-paste titles, descriptions and tags. Distribution kit Download the videos, audio, captions and carousel, or use the prepared post text below. Preview the carousel Videos Video 16:9 (1080p MP4) Vertical 9:16 (TikTok, Reels, Shorts) Vertical highlight Raw audio Final mix (lossless WAV) Final mix (MP3) Voice only (lossless WAV) Captions Captions (WebVTT) Captions (SRT) Highlight captions (SRT) Script Script (plain text) Instagram carousel Carousel (ZIP of slides + caption) Ready to post YouTube thumbnail (1280x720 JPEG) Highlight cover (1080x1920 JPEG) Post pack: titles, descriptions, chapters, tags (JSON) Links Podcast episode Podcast RSS feed The deck Watch page (share link) Carousel caption The fiscal year runs from October to September, and the Treasury publishes the final tally a couple of weeks after it ends. The slides break down fiscal 2026 in three numbers: $5.4 trillion collected, $7.4 trillion spent, and $1.99 trillion borrowed to cover the gap. Interest reached $1.05 trillion, passing national defense, and for every dollar collected Washington borrowed 37 cents more. Follow The Receipts at dataspheres.ai/pages/wtf-america. Post to each platform YouTube Upload the full video in YouTube Studio. Paste the title, description and tags into their matching fields. Add the thumbnail and captions. Review audience, synthetic-media disclosure and visibility, then publish. Download full video · Download video thumbnail · Download captions Title Where Washington’s money went in fiscal 2026 | The Receipts Description The fiscal year runs from October to September, and the Treasury publishes the final tally a couple of weeks after it ends. In this episode: Where Washington’s money went in fiscal 2026; Fiscal 2026 in three numbers; Where the money came from, and where it went; The five biggest bills; $1.05 trillion: Interest passed defense, national defense; How borrowing turns into interest; Who decides what Washington spends; What the interest bill depends on; For every dollar it collected, Washington borrowed 37 cents more; Stay up to date with Dataspheres AI. - The fiscal year just closed, and the Treasury took in $5.4 trillion. - Here is the whole year in one picture. On the left, where the money came from: income taxes, payroll taxes, corporate taxe