The 2011 fiscal year budget process is a complex web of (mainly) mandatory untouchable entitlement spending woven with discretionary initiatives converging to show where our leaders hope to direct our behavior. From research to healthcare to defense and education, with political philosophy’s aside, the direction of our country’s resources is an important thing to understand.
Where is the government’s money coming from?
Where is it going? and why?
How does this process work and who influences it?
To help us find the answers to these questions I have assembled a collection of high quality and interactive graphics and visualizations from credible media sources. I encourage you to click through to a few of these, play around with them, and understand more about how your government spends your money.
The Federal budget process [highly recommended]
Interactivity: Yes
Source: The Washington Post
Obama’s fiscal 2011 Budget proposal: How it is spent.
Interactivity: Yes
Source: The New York Times
Visualizations of receipts & outlays, deficit forecasts, cash flows, defense & Medicare, and by agency.
Interactivity: Some
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Budget forecasts, compared with reality
Interactivity: Yes
Source: The New York Times
Death & Taxes 2010: representational graph and poster of the federal budget.
Interactivity: No
Source: WallStats
Taking apart the federal budget
Interactivity: Some
Source: The Washington Post
Still want to learn more?
Take a look at our continuing project to understand and take action on the growing and potentially life altering national debt.
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I think this view is pretty interesting… it takes the budget data and allows you to cut items yourself to match the deficit. http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/Budget2011/BudgetOverview?:embed=yes&:toolbar=yes&:tabs=yes