Widgets
You can spread the word by adding one of our Facing Up to the Nation's Finances widgets to your blog or web page. Just use the "click for more" link to find code you can copy and paste onto your page.
back to top
Fast Facts
The best quick looks at the problem from our partners and others:
Saving our Future Requires Tough Choices Today, Comptroller General David Walker
This is the Powerpoint presentation David Walker, the head of the GAO, uses when he makes speeches about the nation's financial problems as part of the Fiscal Wake-Up Tour.
Plausible Baseline, the Concord Coalition
A lot of the budget projections made by the federal government are actually hampered by assumptions that can't be changed (for example, by law the CBO projections have to assume President Bush's tax cuts will expire on schedule in 2010). The Concord Coalition doesn't have those limitations and their projections are even more frightening.
Federal Spending By the Numbers 2008 The Heritage Foundation
This easy-to-digest series of charts sums up a lot of key trends about federal spending.
back to top
Glossary
A lot of obscure terms get thrown around when people talk about the federal budget. You certainly don't need to know all these terms, and in fact we think only a handful of basic ones are necessary to understanding the big picture, but this glossary (in pdf) from the Congressional Budget Office is a useful, comprehensive resource for economic and budgetary terms.
back to top
Data in Depth
If you're going to get really serious about this (and it helps to have Adobe Acrobat Reader):
Budget of the United States Government, 2007
It's all here, and then some. You can find it in two places: through the White House Office of Management and Budget and the Government Printing Office. Not only does this give you exhaustive detail on the President's budget request and how the White House sees the situation, but it's also the best source for historical data. The biggest limitation: the budget isn't searchable by keyword.
Budget Options, February 2007, Congressional Budget Office
The CBO's main job is to give Congress an absolutely unvarnished assessment of the financial impact of proposed bills and projects. And that's exactly what this document does, in exhaustive detail: estimates the financial impact of various new programs, spending cuts and tax changes.
21st Century Challenges: Reexamining the Base of the Federal Government, Government Accountability Office
The GAO examines 12 areas of the federal government it says should be re-examined and revised.
High-Risk Series, January 2007, Government Accountability Office
Every year, the GAO identifies the federal programs it thinks are most in need of reform. Some of them are big players, like Medicare.
back to top
The Public's View
The best public opinion research on this topic:
The $9 Trillion Dept: Breaking the Habit of Deficit Spending, National Issues Forums
Become a part of the solution! This guide presents an overview of the problem, three possible approaches to the problem, and a two-page post-forum questionnaire to be completed by forum participants and returned to the National Issues Forums Institute in Dayton, Ohio.
It’s Time to Pay Our Bills: Americans’ Perspectives on the National Debt & How Leaders Can Use the Public’s Ideas to Address the Country’s Long-Term Budget Challenges, Public Agenda
This report reveals the potential and obstacles in public thinking about our fiscal future and provides political leaders with six specific, publicly supported steps toward real federal budget reform.
Facing Up to the Nation's Finances: Understanding Public Attitudes about the Federal Budget, 2006, Public Agenda
This focus group report found while the public was uninformed on federal budget issues, they required relatively little information to appreciate the magnitude of the problem. But the public's deeply felt cynicism about government is a major barrier that must be addressed before progress can be made.
Americans Deliberate Our Nation's Finances and Future: It's not about taxes - It's about trust, Viewpoint Learning
This report from Viewpoint's ChoiceDialogue discussions shows given an opportunity to work through the issues, Americans find a surprising amount of common ground. They were willing to support changes that require sacrifice, including program cuts and tax increases, but only if they could be assured that their tax money was being well spent and for the purposes intended.
