Federal government current expenditures under Ronald Reagan

What the federal government spends, in the dollars of the day.

Over 1981-01-20 to 1989-01-19, measured in Billions of Dollars:

Term average

946.74 Billions of Dollars

At the start

695.7 Billions of Dollars

At the end

1,171.14 Billions of Dollars

Change

+475.44 Billions of Dollars

Low

695.7 Billions of Dollars (1981-04-01)

High

1,171.14 Billions of Dollars (1989-01-01)

Coverage

100% (32 observations)

Reading this series over a presidential term

Nominal dollars again: inflation and population growth push it up regardless of policy. As a share of GDP it would be comparable across decades; as dollars it is not.

Most of it is not discretionary. Benefit programs, set by law long ago, dominate the total, and they rise automatically with the retired population and with prices.

These are the observed values over the window above, and nothing more. This site does not say which direction is better, and none of this is a claim that Ronald Reagan caused the number to move.

What Federal government current expenditures measures · Ronald Reagan: the whole record · Chart it · Compare with another president · The source at FRED