Budget Matters Blog


You Ask, We Don't Answer: How Much Money Does the Federal Government Spend?

Tracking federal spending is tricky, but it's critical to having an informed discussion about the budget. Because "federal spending" can mean different things and involves multiple sources of data, we often don't know exactly how much is spent on a particular program. The DATA Act wants to fix that.


You Ask, We Answer: Why Doesn't the Government Publish These Numbers?

The White House used to put out a Citizen's Guide to the Federal Budget every year, but it was discontinued during the George W. Bush presidency. President Obama has not resurrected the practice. Meanwhile, valuable information about how the federal government spends our tax dollars is going extinct


Pie Week: Spending Pies United

During Pie Week, we’ve explored three types of federal spending pies: total, mandatory, and discretionary. Judging from your comments on our Facebook page, you have strong opinions about the numbers on these charts. To wrap up the week, we think it’s important to see the spending charts next to one ...


Pie Week Continues: Tax Revenues

Our final pie of Pie Week! We showed you total federal spending, mandatory spending, and discretionary spending. Today's flavor of pie? Where the money comes from to fund the federal budget.


Pie Week: The Discretionary Budget

Pie Week continues today with the part of the federal budget that often receives the most scrutiny: discretionary spending.


Pie Week Continues: Mandatory Spending

For the second day of Pie Week, we present the mandatory spending pie. Mandatory spending is part of total federal spending, which we explored in yesterday's total federal spending pie.


Pie Week! First Up: Total Federal Spending

This week we're talking about pie. Federal budget pies, that is. The first pie we're looking at is total federal spending. Join us every day this week for a different slice of pie.


You Ask, We Answer: How Much of the Federal Budget Funds the Military?

In some charts, you see that military is more than half the budget. But in others, you see that it's much less than that. Let's settle this once and for all.


Updated Data: Labor Force, Employment, and Unemployment

Labor Force Participation, Employment, and Unemployment data are now current through 2011.


Data Story: Top 5 States for Renewable Energy R&D Awards

Which states get the most federal money to fund research on alternative fuels?