This report analyzes spending trends in selected U.S. federal budget categories from fiscal year 2000 through estimated 2025 figures. The analysis focuses on categories such as International Affairs, Science, Energy, Environment, Agriculture, Commerce, Transportation, Community Development, and Veterans Benefits. These categories make up a sliver of the entire government’s budget compared with health insurance (Medicare and Medicaid), Social Security and defense spending.
Veteran Benefits and Services had the steadiest increase, while Commerce and Housing Credit had the most stark outliers in the 24-year trend. This plot visualizes the evolution of real spending (adjusted for inflation to constant 2024 dollars) for each selected budget category from 2000 to 2024. Note: The year 2025 is excluded here due to the uncertainty in the CPI estimate.
The following table shows the annual average Consumer Price Index, the data used to adjust spending figures to constant 2024 dollars. The CPI measures the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services. Data for 2000-2023 is based on historical figures, 2024 is an estimate based on available data, and the 2025 value is not complete.
To understand how spending changes in ‘real’ terms (meaning, adjusted for the fact that prices generally go up over time), we use a measure called the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Think of the CPI like the price tag on a typical basket of goods and services (food, housing, gas, etc.). The government tracks the cost of this basket over time. They set the average cost during a specific period (1982-1984) to a value of 100. The chart below shows how this price index has changed over the years. A rising line indicates inflation (prices going up).
Source: U.S.Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The following interactive table displays the processed budget data for the selected categories. It shows both the original Nominal Spending (in millions of dollars as reported for each year) and the calculated Real Spending (adjusted for inflation and expressed in millions of constant 2024 dollars).
This bar chart directly compares the real spending (in billions of dollars) for each category between the fiscal years 2000 and 2024. This allows for a clear visualization of the magnitude of change in inflation-adjusted spending over this period for each function.
These charts visually underscore the scale difference between National Defense spending and the combined total of the highlighted budget functions from 2000 to 2024 (after adjusting for inflation). While the total height of the bars fluctuates, reflecting changes primarily in defense budgets over the period, National Defense consistently constitutes the vast majority of the spending shown each year. The spending on the combined highlighted categories forms a relatively small layer on top, emphasizing that even their collective budget is dwarfed by defense allocations throughout this time frame.
Overall, the analysis reveals significant shifts in real spending priorities among these selected US budget functions between 2000 and 2024. Adjusting for inflation shows that while nominal spending has increased broadly, the most dramatic real growth occurred in Veterans Benefits and Services. Transportation and International Affairs also saw notable real increases. Other areas like Agriculture and Energy experienced more modest changes in inflation-adjusted terms. The volatility in Commerce and Housing Credit highlights the impact of economic events and specific government interventions on budget figures.