The Daily LedgerSection
Departments
Four department profiles built from enacted appropriations and Treasury records. Every figure vintage-labeled.
Deep Dive | Federal Spending
Deep Dive: Debt to GDP compares a daily debt total with an economy measured in periods, and the history in the series explains the gap
Debt to GDP divides a debt total on a date by production over a quarter or a year, and the Ledger records show fiscal year end debt rising from $20,244,900,016,053.51 in 2017 to $40,171,825,101,340.31 in 2026, while fiscal 2025 net interest of $970,000,000,000 was stated as 3.2 percent of GDP.
Deep Dive | Federal Spending
Department Deep Dive: Health and Human Services is a benefits payer first, and its contract week was $46.0 million
Under the fiscal 2025 budget request, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services accounted for $1,600,000,000,000 in total budget authority at the Department of Health and Human Services, while USAspending records for October 16 to 22, 2026 show $46,046,631.08 in department contract obligations across 324 transactions.
Deep Dive | Federal Spending
Department Deep Dive: The Treasury is the cash manager behind the debt total, and its own contract week was $73.1 million
The Department of the Treasury paid $609,200,000,000 in cash interest in fiscal 2025 and its Internal Revenue Service discretionary funding was about $12,300,000,000 in fiscal 2025, while USAspending records for October 16 to 22, 2026 show $73,074,660.00 in Treasury contract obligations across 99 transactions.
Deep Dive | Federal Spending
Deep Dive: Mandatory and discretionary spending split every department into two different budgets
Veterans Affairs enacted $367,730,000,000 for fiscal 2025, split between $238,680,000,000 in mandatory spending and $129,040,000,000 in discretionary spending, a dated example of the split that runs through every department behind a national debt of $40,463,151,897,249.19 on October 23, 2026.
Deep Dive | Federal Spending
Deep Dive: Who owns the debt is a list of holders, and the interest payments go to every name on it
Foreign holders held $9,250,000,000,000 in Treasury securities as of July 2026 and the Federal Reserve held $4,490,000,000,000 as of July 1, 2026, two dated slices of a holder list behind a national debt that stood at $40,444,342,709,389.15 on October 22, 2026.
Deep Dive | Federal Spending
Department Deep Dive: Defense is personnel and operations first, and its contract data is still missing from the latest week
The fiscal 2025 defense authorization totaled $883,670,000,000, with personnel and operations together accounting for more than half, while USAspending records for October 15 to 21, 2026 returned only $1,760,127.60 in Defense contract obligations because of a reporting gap.
Department Profile | FY2025 enacted
Department of Defense
$883.67B authorized: personnel, operations, procurement, and research.
Department Profile | FY2025 request
Department of Health and Human Services
A benefits-paying machine: CMS at $1.6T in total budget authority.
Department Profile | FY2025 enacted
Department of Veterans Affairs
$367.73B: two-thirds checks to veterans, one-third health system.
Department Profile | FY2025
Department of the Treasury
The interest bill: $1,013B fiscal year to date, larger than defense.