Is there just some big bank account, and do they just write a check/ is there some sort of government wire transfer system? Every time I hear something like “US approves $55 million in spending” how do they actually spend it? Where does that money come from and who gets it?
In: Economics
The other posters are missing the mark. While the Federal Reserve is indeed the US’s central bank, [there is literally a bank account held by the US Treasury](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/treasury-general-account.asp) that’s used for income and expenses. When the government makes a payment to someone, it comes out of that account. Treasury keeps track of “balances” for individual programs by using the [Treasury Account Symbol](https://www.fsd.gov/fsd-gov/answer.do?sysparm_kbid=68b2e6f76f25a10003be658fae3ee4dd&sysparm_search=) – which is kind of like a sub-bank-account for the individual agency subdivisions – but there’s a single main account that the money ultimately comes from.
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