How this is calculated
Each line is that category’s share of fiscal 2026 federal spending, applied to the amount you entered. This is a proportional picture of the whole budget, not a trace of your dollars. Taxes aren’t earmarked this way, and Social Security and much of Medicare run mainly on their own payroll taxes.
The government collected $5.40 trillion and spent $7.40 trillion, borrowing about 37¢ for every dollar it collected. That’s the credit card line. It isn’t money you paid. Negative lines are money agencies took in, which is counted against spending.
Figures are Treasury actuals, except the PACT Act, ARPA-E, and Minority Business Development Agency lines, which use preliminary USAspending data. If your Form 1040 total already includes Additional Medicare or self-employment tax, leave that amount out of the W-2 line. The sample uses the average of $13,224 per return from IRS data for tax year 2023.