Budget Bubbles for Tax Day

i-acb435bb9d653fc2eaaeee3c94fa0fef-WallStatsDAT.jpg

This chart shows where your federal tax dollars go, based on Feb 2008 budget numbers (note: this shows discretionary budget, or appropriations, only - go here for more details, or look at the inset in the lower right corner to see where the other two-thirds of the budget are).

Visit wallstats.com for a giant version.

More like this

As debt-ceiling negotiations continue and members of both parties express a desire for "leaner" government, James Kwak at The Atlantic offers an important reminder: Measuring the size of the US government by how much money it spends can be misleading. Social Security and Medicare, both of which are…
In a Washington Post column the other day, George Will said the same thing I've been saying the last couple weeks - the notion that Bush's proposed budget is fiscally responsible is ridiculous: Not that his "lean" (his adjective) and "austere" (John McCain's) $2.57 trillion budget is anything of…
A commenter points me to a post by Robert Frank, The Rich Support McCain, the Super-Rich Support Obama: More than three quarters of those worth $1 million to $10 million plan to vote for Sen. McCain. Only 15% plan to vote for Sen. Obama (the rest are undecided). Of those worth more than $30 million…
As a result of the veto by Bush of the the fiscal year 2008 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill, if the veto is not overriden by Congress, the NIH will receive a de facto 3.7% funding cut: The bill, H.R.3043, also sought to bolster the budgets of the departments of…

Huh. It's fascinating, but I don't see DOD science spending on here. I presume that it would be a branch of the Army (because that is where the money comes from). Any thoughts?

HH, the chart is definitely not designed to make that obvious. I got an answer for you from someone more knowledgeable:

"On that chart it's located in a bunch of places... For starters each branch has an "RDT&E" section. That includes all the major test and evaluation for new weapons systems, but it also includes DOD sponsored research at universities and the basic stuff happening in-house. DARPA's got its own bubble as well. I'm not sure where the health stuff that DOD funds is, though. That program is called DOD Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP)."