Budget & Fiscal Control

7 of 7 overlay dives on this record

The six universal dives are asked of every subject at this tier. This is not one of them. It exists because of one thing this subject has been — office-holder — and a subject who has not been that never gets this page. That is why this record has 7 overlay dives to write rather than a number every record shares. All six base dives were written first, and that ordering is a rule rather than a habit: an overlay dive published on its own is a page about the part of someone chosen by whoever built it.

The first overlay dive on this record, and the third time these universal tables have been run. Two of its findings — the flat interest bill and the missing court ruling — are only visible because the other two records were measured the same way.

The six base dives and the other 6 overlay dives are listed on the full record.

consecutive years of falling discretionary outlays

FY2011–FY2015, in nominal dollars

−$175bn

discretionary spending, FY2010 to FY2015

A fall of 13.0%

39.0 → 30.8

per cent of outlays set annually

The steepest sustained fall in the series

1.41×

net interest across eight years

The same line rose 2.50× in three, two presidencies later

rulings striking a fiscal instrument here

Both other records have one — the asymmetry is the finding

The size of the lever

The steepest sustained fall in the share sits inside this term

Discretionary spending is the part Congress appropriates annually and a president signs or vetoes. Its share of outlays has been falling for sixty years, but the sharpest stretch of that fall — 39.0% to 30.8% in six years — happens here.

196267.5%

198046.8%

200034.4%

200838.1%

201039.0%

201334.8%

201630.8%

202124.0%

202526.7%

Share of total outlays. OMB Historical Table 8.1 — outlays by Budget Enforcement Act category, actuals only, earliest year 1962. Years inside this term carry a dim rule; yellow marks the term's own peak.

Reading it

The share of federal spending set by the annual appropriations process has fallen from just over two-thirds in 1962 to about a quarter now. The steepest sustained fall in that whole series happens inside this term: 39.0% in FY2010 to 30.8% in FY2016, more than eight points in six years. Unlike the rest of the decline — which is benefits growing faster than appropriations — this stretch is the numerator falling in actual dollars, and the next tab is about why.

The first of seven overlay dives on the full record. All three records at this tier now have this dive, on the same tables — which is what makes the comparison between Donald Trump, Joe Biden and this one a measurement rather than three separate arguments.