Fiscal Policy

The three major categories of revenue for the federal government are individual income taxes, corporate income taxes and social insurance taxes. The most important of these are the individual income taxes, which represent 55.1% of the total budget revenues, or $1.396 trillion. The second-most important revenue category is the social insurance taxes, which account for $978 billion, or 34.6% of the total budget revenues. The third-most important category is the corporate income taxes, which amount to $290 billion, or 10.3% of total budget revenues. The "other" category of revenues accounts for the remaining 5.7% of total budget revenues.

The three major categories of expenditures are mandatory spending, discretionary spending and interest. The largest of these is mandatory spending, which accounts for $1.914 trillion, or 57.5% of total outlays. The second-most important category of spending is the discretionary spending, which accounts for $1.189 trillion, or 35.2% of total budget...
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