An overview of major U.S. Federal Government line item spending from last week...
Social Security payments hit $720.7 billion for the fiscal year last week. This is $20.3 billion above last year and the growth rate is currently 2.92% year-over-year.
Medicare spending totaled $587.4 billion for the fiscal year to date last week, $31.7 billion above the same time last year. Growth rate is 5.71% year-over-year.
Last week's Medicaid payments totaled $314.8 billion for the fiscal year to date. That is $9.6 billion over the last year, with a year-over-year growth rate of 3.2%. This is the fastest growth rate since March.
Defense Vendor payments comes to $246 billion. That is $8.4 billion LESS than the same time last year! Growth rate is -3.3%.
A quarterly interest payment was made on August 15th, to the amount around $40 billion.
Federal Government salaries clocked in at $146.3 billion. This is $978 million above the figure at time in 2015. Note the higher highs and higher lows, with the trend towards increasing salaries.
Unemployment benefits came up to $29.6 billion, a figure $72 million over 2015. Benefits are up year-over-year because wages are trending up, as the benefit's payouts reflect higher earnings.
Education spending rang out to $143 billion, which is $6.4 billion LESS than 2015 and falling 4.4% year-over-year. The cutting in spending may be due to the summer holidays.
The government program formerly known as Food Stamps checked out at $61.5 billion, coming in $3.4 billion LESS and growing at 5.2% SLOWER than the same time last year. There seems to be no sign of rising economic stress in this data point.
Other miscellaneous Federal Government spending totaled $657.6 billion. This is $25.5 billion above last year and growing at a rate of 4.0% year-over-year.