ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Expenditures in the United States federal budget

The United States federal budget is like a big piggy bank that holds all the money that the government has to spend. Just like when you have a piggy bank, the government has to decide how to spend its money too! Expenditures are things that the government spends money on, like toys and candy you might spend your allowance on.

The government has to decide how to spend its money on lots of different things, like keeping people safe by paying for the military or paying for teachers to help kids learn. They also use money to take care of old people, give food to hungry people, build and fix roads, and even explore space!

Every year, the government has to make a plan for how they will spend their money on all the different things they need to pay for. This plan is called the federal budget. It's like a big list of how much money the government will spend on each thing.

Expenditures in the federal budget are the things that the government plans to spend money on. Just like when you make a list of toys you want to buy with your allowance money, the government makes a list of things they want to buy with their piggy bank money.

These expenditures are divided into different categories or "buckets" like health, education, defense, and more. Each category has a certain amount of money that can be used for things that fit into that category.

So, just like how you have to decide which toys you want to buy with your allowance money, the government has to decide what things are most important to spend their money on. And just like how you can't buy all the toys at once, the government can't spend all their money on everything they want. They have to make choices and decide what things are most important to use their money for.