The categories of spending used in this simulation generally match the categories used in the official budget of the United States under its "Functions and Sub-functions" perspective on the budget. Most of these categories match the way most people discuss the budget, even when some of the specific programs may be unknown.
The one area which this simulation changed was removing the area of the budget called "Income Security" which is a grabbag of retirement programs, welfare programs, and work-related spending like unemployment compensation.
This category was restructured for this simulation in the following way to create a clearer presentation of areas of public debate: programs generally treated as "welfare" were grouped together under a category of "social welfare", military retirement programs were grouped with the "Veterans" category, and a new category was created to group together work-related income programs (including civilian retirement programs and unemployment compensation)
All sub-functions in the "long" version of the game remain the same, except that some small programs are grouped together in "other" categories under the larger main function headings.