The Ledger

Follow the federal dollar

Every year, money moves from taxpayers to Washington and back out again. We follow that path carefully, using official public data.

FFY 2025 budget State rankings Agency outlays

The path

How federal money moves

The Ledger follows that path in order: receipts, the budget, agency spending, and the state-by-state balance.

ReceiptsRevenueFederal taxes and other receipts are collected nationally, then attributed to places in different ways. Treasury and IRS releases show what came in, and what those figures can and cannot mean.Revenue
The budgetCongressBefore agencies spend, Congress sets the shape of the books: revenues, outlays, deficits, and debt. The Congressional Budget Office’s historical series and baseline put those totals in a longer frame.Congress
Outlays and awardsAgenciesDepartments and programs turn budget authority into benefits, contracts, and grants. Award obligations and Treasury outlays are related measures, not interchangeable ones.Agencies
Balance of paymentsStatesSome states send more to Washington than they get back; others receive more than they pay. Rankings and maps show that exchange by fiscal year, without blending years together.States

A note on the numbers

Figures are built from archived Treasury, IRS, CBO, USAspending, and state balance-of-payments releases, not live dashboard scrapes. Fiscal years are kept separate on purpose. Definitions, caveats, and what the rankings do not mean are in the methodology.