2008 Federal Budget Visualization
April 21st, 2007 | by Neal Levene |
The above poster (available at The Budget Graph) displays the relative distribution of the 2008 US Federal Discretionary Budget, based on the February 5, 2007 budget request.
You would be hard pressed to find a more complex budget. The visualization conveys a tremendous amount of information in a small space, well 24×36. An interactive flash version is available here.
Spending a little bit of time with the poster reveals a great deal about the current national priorities. One of the things that I found the most interesting is that there would be no Federal Deficit if there was no Federal Debt. The debt interest is $261 Billion and the deficit is $239 Billion. I guess that is like saying that you would not have gone bankrupt if your mortgage interest payments weren’t so high. It also shows the overwhelming percentage of our budget that goes to the military.
The presentation is certainly thought provoking, if not a bit disturbing.
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