“Welfare” isn't a line in the federal budget. The programs people usually mean are means-tested: you qualify only if your income (and often your assets) are low. They are scattered across several budget categories, mostly Health and Income security. Gathered together, the major ones cost $1.30T in FY2025, 19% of federal spending, and more than half of that is one program, Medicaid.
$1.30T
major means-tested programs, FY2025
19%
of all federal spending
$668B
Medicaid alone (51% of the total)
$2.58T
Social Security + Medicare, for comparison (not means-tested)
The programs
FY2025 outlays of the 19 largest means-tested programs, grouped by what they pay for. Each links to the subcategory it sits in.
Mandatory (set by standing law)Discretionary (set by yearly appropriations)Net interest
These programs combined, in 2025 dollars. Medicaid accounts for 52% of the growth since 1993. The peak in FY2022 reflects pandemic-era expansions: larger SNAP benefits, the temporary Child Tax Credit expansion, and Medicaid's continuous-enrollment rule.
What's in, what's out. This list follows the usual definition of means-tested programs: benefits limited by income. It includes the refundable parts of the Earned Income and Child Tax Credits (the portion paid out beyond a family's tax bill, which the budget counts as spending) but not tax breaks that only reduce taxes owed. It leaves out Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, and veterans' benefits, which are earned or insurance-based rather than means-tested, and smaller programs such as TEFAP food aid, Lifeline, and the Social Services Block Grant. Program totals are each account's full FY2025 outlays, including administration where it is funded in the same account.