Budget Matters Blog

New Study: Income Gap Grows

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Posted: | Budget Process

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) between 1979 and 2007 income for the top 1 percent of households grew by 275 percent. The next 19 percent of households saw their income grow by 65 percent. Income grew 40 percent for the next 60 percent of households. The bottom 20 ...

Updated Data: Health Insurance Coverage

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Posted: | Health Care, Transparency & Data

Health insurance coverage data has been updated. The Children's Health Insurance and People's Health Insurance datasets are now current through 2010.

What would the next generation do with $1 trillion?

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Posted: | Budget Process

It seems that these days, everyone has an opinion about how our federal budget should be spent, cut or balanced.     Youth are disproportionately affected by budget cuts, but often don't have a voice in the debate -- until now.   The American Friends Service Committee and National Priorities Project ...

Updated Data: Population

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Posted: | Transparency & Data

We've updated our state and county population numbers to reflect the recent 2000-2010 intercensal estimates published by the Census Bureau.

Thanks, EPI, for adding some sense to the world

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Posted: | Transparency & Data

This week the Economic Policy Institute celebrates its 25th anniversary. We at National Priorities Project want to thank EPI for a quarter century of service, and for things like this chart, from the recent EPI report on income inequality: This chart is a unique- and telling- way of examining the ...

A bug fix, a usability fix, and a grammar fix

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Posted: | Transparency & Data

We fixed county-level data downloads, added state names to the county data pages, and changed some wording to appease the grammar nerds.

Data Story: Jobs and Department of Defense Procurement

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Posted: | Military & Security, Transparency & Data

This data story explores the relationship between Department of Defense procurement spending and unemployment rates.

Money Out—Also, Money In

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Posted: | Budget Process, Transparency & Data

There’s so much talk these days about federal deficits and cutting spending. So we at NPP thought it would be good to talk about tax revenues—the other half of the budget picture—and not just about spending (For some background on how the budget works, check out the People’s Guide to ...

Sunlight Makes Government Accountable

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Posted: | Budget Process

Sunlight Foundation is working for a "Super Committee" process that is more transparent and has developed five recommendations: Provide a live webcasts of all official meetings and hearings Make available the Committee's report for 72 hours before a final committee vote Disclose every meeting held with lobbyists and other powerful ...

Data Story: Food Insecurity and Food Stamps

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Posted: | Social Insurance, Earned Benefits, & Safety Net, Transparency & Data

Between 2008 and 2010, the percentage of food insecure households remained flat at 14.5% while the amount of money the federal government spent on the food stamp program rose 83%.