The LedgerPublic Record
BooksThe BooksFloorThe FloorGavelThe GavelDeskThe DeskRaceThe Race
The LedgerPublic Record

Five shelves of federal record. Pick a shelf, then dig in.

Archives refreshed Aug 9, 2026

The Books

  • Overview
  • Rankings
  • Map
  • Historical
  • Awards
  • Composition

The Floor

  • Overview
  • Watchlist
  • Pipeline
  • Votes
  • Members

The Gavel

  • Overview
  • Docket
  • Opinions
  • Justices

The Desk

  • Overview
  • Presidencies
  • Actions

The Race

  • Overview
  • Map
  • Presidency
  • Senate
  • House

Guides

  • Overview
  • Start here
  • Students
  • Reporters
  • Tools

Reference

  • Home
  • Definitions
  • Methodology
  • Data integrity
  • Status
  • Data cache
  • Data dictionary
  • Pricing
  • Usage
  • Privacy
  • Contact
  • For AI agents

Free and open. Accounts optional. Privacy covers anonymous visit data only. Usage covers how to cite and reuse the archives. Contact uses a private form.

  1. Home
  2. ›The Books
  3. ›Congress
  4. ›Compare

Compare fiscal years

Two federal fiscal years of the CBO budget history, side by side, with the change and percent change on every line.

64 fiscal years

Two federal fiscal years, side by side. Change is FFY 2025 minus FFY 2020 in nominal billions of dollars (not inflation-adjusted); percent change divides that by the FFY 2020 value. Across the 5-year span we also show the compound annual growth rate (the steady yearly rate that gets from FFY 2020 to FFY 2025), and each category line as a share of its section total so you can see composition shifts, not just dollar moves. The URL carries the selection, for example /congress/compare?a=2020&b=2025.

FFY 2020 detail →FFY 2025 detail →

Revenues

▲+$1.8T

+53.0% · FFY 2020 $3.4T → FFY 2025 $5.2T

+8.9%/yr compounded over 5 years

Outlays

▲+$456.4B

+7.0% · FFY 2020 $6.6T → FFY 2025 $7.0T

+1.4%/yr compounded over 5 years

Deficit / surplus

▲+$1.4T

+43.3% · FFY 2020 −$3.1T → FFY 2025 −$1.8T

Debt held by the public

▲+$9.2T

+43.6% · FFY 2020 $21.0T → FFY 2025 $30.2T

+7.5%/yr compounded over 5 years

Discretionary

▲+$244.5B

+15.0% · FFY 2020 $1.6T → FFY 2025 $1.9T

+2.8%/yr compounded over 5 years

Mandatory

▼−$412.6B

−9.0% · FFY 2020 $4.6T → FFY 2025 $4.2T

−1.9%/yr compounded over 5 years

Net interest

▲+$624.5B

+180.8% · FFY 2020 $345.5B → FFY 2025 $969.9B

+22.9%/yr compounded over 5 years

Headline metrics: FFY 2020 vs FFY 2025

Revenue sources

Revenue sources: FFY 2020 compared with FFY 2025, with each line's share of the section total
CategoryFFY 2020FFY 2025Change%Share of section
Individual income taxes$1.6T$2.7T▲+$1.0T+65.1%47.0% → 50.7%+3.7 p.p.
Payroll taxes$1.3T$1.7T▲+$438.3B+33.5%38.3% → 33.4%−4.9 p.p.
Corporate income taxes$211.8B$452.1B▲+$240.2B+113.4%6.2% → 8.6%+2.4 p.p.
Customs duties$68.6B$194.9B▲+$126.3B+184.3%2.0% → 3.7%+1.7 p.p.
Miscellaneous receipts$117.7B$47.9B▼−$69.8B−59.3%3.4% → 0.9%−2.5 p.p.
Excise taxes$86.8B$105.9B▲+$19.2B+22.1%2.5% → 2.0%−0.5 p.p.
Estate and gift taxes$17.6B$29.5B▲+$11.8B+67.2%0.5% → 0.6%+0.0 p.p.

Discretionary outlays

Discretionary outlays: FFY 2020 compared with FFY 2025, with each line's share of the section total
CategoryFFY 2020FFY 2025Change%Share of section
NondefenseDiscretionary nondefense outlays$914.1B$979.9B▲+$65.8B+7.2%56.2% → 52.3%−3.8 p.p.
DefenseDiscretionary defense outlays$713.8B$892.5B▲+$178.7B+25.0%43.8% → 47.7%+3.8 p.p.

Mandatory outlays

Mandatory outlays: FFY 2020 compared with FFY 2025, with each line's share of the section total
CategoryFFY 2020FFY 2025Change%Share of section
Other major health care$1.3T$1.8T▲+$517.7B+39.8%22.1% → 30.4%+8.3 p.p.
Social Security$1.1T$1.6T▲+$485.4B+44.5%18.5% → 26.3%+7.8 p.p.
Medicare$912.1B$1.2T▲+$267.9B+29.4%15.5% → 19.7%+4.2 p.p.
Other mandatory$1.1T$255.4B▼−$798.4B−75.8%17.9% → 4.3%−13.7 p.p.
Income security$1.1T$397.4B▼−$653.5B−62.2%17.9% → 6.6%−11.2 p.p.
Medicaid$458.5B$668.1B▲+$209.7B+45.7%7.8% → 11.2%+3.4 p.p.
Offsetting receiptsOften negative; reduces reported mandatory totals−$277.8B−$369.8B▼−$92.0B−33.1%-4.7% → -6.2%−1.5 p.p.
Veterans’ programs$121.8B$251.3B▲+$129.5B+106.3%2.1% → 4.2%+2.1 p.p.
Federal retirement$171.1B$209.9B▲+$38.9B+22.7%2.9% → 3.5%+0.6 p.p.

Interest and offsets

Interest and offsets: FFY 2020 compared with FFY 2025
CategoryFFY 2020FFY 2025Change%
Net interest$345.5B$969.9B▲+$624.5B+180.8%
Offsetting receipts (outlays)Budget accounting offsets in the outlay presentation−$277.8B−$369.8B▼−$92.0B−33.1%
Each column is one federal fiscal year from archived CBO releases, kept separate. Change is FFY B minus FFY A in nominal dollars (not inflation-adjusted); percent change divides that by the FFY A value. Compound annual growth is the steady yearly rate from FFY A to FFY B over the span, and is left blank when an endpoint is not positive. Share of section is a line divided by that section total for the same year. All are computed only from these CBO figures. Source: Congressional Budget Office. Built 2026-08-09. How we read these tables: methodology.