Budget Matters Blog


We hear you Mr. Norquist but we will not yield!

Here we go again. For the second year in a row, Congress will not complete the federal budget process in time for the October 1 turn of the fiscal year. Last year, we were dragged through eight painful continuing resolutions lasting until mid-April – leading ultimately to decreases – largely ...

Data Story: WIC Benefits and Participation

Our new featured data story is WIC benefits and participation.


Deficit Reduction or Class Warfare?

Obama's speech in the Rose Garden on Monday outlined his proposal to control deficit spending, which features the “Buffet Rule” to ensure that households earning over $1 million do not pay a lower tax rate than middle-class Americans. Critics of Obama's plan called this class warfare. But in today's flagging ...

New Data: County Unemployment

Our unemployment data is now available at the county level as well as the state level.


The Scoop on the American Jobs Act of 2011

President Obama presented the American Jobs Act of 2011 on September 8th and sent it to Congress on September 12th. Want to know what it's all about? Here’s the rundown. How does it help… the unemployed? It makes it illegal for employers to discriminate against unemployed job applicants because of ...

A Decade After 9/11: The Dollars and Sense of War

10 numbers you need to know: $1.26 Trillion – Total amount appropriated by Congress for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through the end of Fiscal Year 2011 (September 30, 2011) – $797.3 billion for Iraq and $459.8 billion for Afghanistan. $7.6 Trillion – The total amount spent on “security” ...

New Data: Adult Education

We've added a new expenditure. Adult Education: grants to states that fund local programs of adult education and literacy services.


As the Expenditures Turn

Where we get federal expenditure data, why we don't show all 10 million rows of it, and an API sneak peek.


Mapping Essential State and County Data About Federal Spending and Social Well-being

National Priorities Project announces the launch of its Federal Priorities Database, a tool which compares the way our nation spends money with the social impact of these expenditures. The database tracks both federal spending and social indicators (e.g., poverty rates, renewable energy usage and enrollment in the State Children's Health ...

Federal Priorities Database: Underemployment (U-6)

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes several alternate meausures of labor underutilization that are more inclusive than the standard unemployment rate.