“In previous reports, CBO analyzed how household income (which included some federal benefit payments, or transfers) and federal taxes were distributed among different segments of the U.S. population. This report goes a step farther by analyzing the distribution of most federal spending—including spending on transfers and a host of other government activities—and almost all federal revenues among U.S. households in 2006. In that calendar year (the most recent one for which relevant data were publicly available when CBO began the analysis), the federal government spent $2.7 trillion on a wide range of goods and services and collected $2.4 trillion in taxes and other revenues to pay for them. About 88 percent of that spending and 98 percent of those revenues are allocated to households in this report. With the economy still recovering from the 2007–2009 recession, federal spending was much higher in calendar year 2012 ($3.6 trillion) than it was in 2006. Some of the additional spending went to households affected by the recession, so the distribution of spending in 2012 probably differed from the distribution presented here. Although total revenues were similar in 2006 and 2012, the distribution of taxes also probably differed because of changes in tax laws and in the distribution of income. This analysis examines spending and taxes for three types of households, which are defined by the age of their members: elderly households, nonelderly households with children present, and nonelderly households without children present. The nonelderly households are further divided into five income groups on the basis of their annual market income—a measure that includes most sources of income other than transfer payments. (CBO excluded elderly households from the analysis of income groups because annual market income is not a good measure of resources for those households, many of whom rely heavily on nonmarket income, such as Social Security benefits.)”