A federal spending entry shows an obligation. Does that mean the money was paid?
Politics"They've already handed it over," my friend said, pointing to a screenshot from USAspending. He wants our politics reading group to discuss whether a federal project was worth its cost.
The screenshot's amount is labelled "obligations." I haven't found the matching outlay figure or established the period covered by the entry. We've left the recipient and amount out of our discussion notes for now because we haven't checked the record properly.
My friend thinks I'm getting distracted by vocabulary. But if we're arguing about money already paid, I want to know whether that's what the field describes. I'm also not claiming that a commitment is unimportant simply because payment may be a different stage.
What would be a fair way to explain the distinction and decide which information we still need before making a claim about this project's spending?