Getting started fast is easy. Select either budget over time, or budget items compared to plunge right in.
- Budget over time gives you the opportunity to do just that - explore elements of the budget over the past forty-five years.
- Budget items compared lets you compare budget items to one another and across departments and in different times.
Print any chart by right-clicking (on PC) or cntrl-clicking (on a Mac) on it.
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Understanding the relationship between the federal budget and government policy is difficult even for full-time budget wonks. For the rest of us, it's almost impossible.
The biggest problem isn't that we can't get to the right information, it's just that the information isn't easy to use, and we have a hard time visualizing the context of budget decisions.
US Visual Budget brings this context and understanding to the forefront. With this application you can:
compare aspects of the budget to one another (from branches of government to individual cross-cutting functions like energy or international affairs) |
examine changes over time (going back to the Kennedy administration, but soon all the way back to that of George Washington) |
see what spending decisions were made in what sort of political climate (by House, Senate, or Presidential party) |
see numbers in real dollars or nominal dollars and print any chart that you create for use elsewhere (for example, hang it on your wall, add it to a report, or mail it to your congressperson) |
In other words, VisualBudget does more than let you see what is going on, it gives you a tool to make sense of it.
Some sample charts
 Total federal spending and revenue from 1961 to the present, with a political overlay of the sitting president. |
Spending on energy conservation and energy emergency prepardness compared from 1961 to the present. |
Top 10 biggest changes in spending during the term of president Jimmy Carter (1977-80) |
The US Visual Budget is a tool for citizen exploration of one of the most complex, but important, components of federal influence. The budget is an annual affair, and is a bellwether for what the people and their elected representatives feel is important and worth supporting. The US Visual Budget brings these priorities to the forefront and ensures their place in the consideration of, and conversations about, national governance.
The US Visual Budget is one of a series of data visualization tools developed by rpdANALYTICS, all with the goal of making complex data useful and relevant to experts and non-experts alike. We welcome your comments, suggestions, and insights.
You may contact us at:
rpdANALYTICS
140 Little Falls Street
Suite 210
Falls Church, VA 22460
info@rpdanalytics.com | +1-206-495-6555