National Debt and the Presidents

First, I'm not pushing any particular political agenda.  There's considerable debate around this chart, so I don't want to start any arguments.  The debate isn't around the validity of the data, but about how it's being presented.  The information is freely available from the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Bureau of the Public Debt.

Second, I like that this chart takes a simple bar chart and adds a few more layers of information.  At its root, this is a timeline of the increase in the national debt based on the federal budget by year.  Then layered on top of that are the presidents in office that year, some color coding, the political party controlling the White House and highlights for record years.

Third, just to share the reasons for the debate.  This is a great example of data being visualized with a specific agenda in mind.  Obviously, this is a chart framed to make Republicans look bad, and Democrats look good.  The debate centers around a few issues like programs started by one President will carry into the term of another President and more importantly that the political party controlling Congress actually has more impact on the federal budget than the President does.

The President's Entourage

Found on Digg, a quick graphic showing the massive entourage that travels with the President.

Death and Taxes 2008

NEW Death and Taxes infographic for 2008!

It is the 2008 Federal discretionary budget of the United States. is a representational poster of the federal discretionary budget; the amount of money that is spent at the discretion of your elected representatives in Congress. Basically, your federal income taxes. The data is from the President's budget request for 2008. It will be debated, amended, and approved by Congress by October 1st to begin the fiscal year.

So this is what the President is asking for, not the final budget. Compare this to the final 2007 discretionary budget from my earlier post.

An interactive Flash version is online at www.thebudgetgraph.com/poster.

Death and Taxes 2007

One of my favorite infographics is the Death and Taxes series.

This infographic visually breaks down the US Federal Discretionary Budget for 2007 into smaller and smaller bubbles. The actual values are also included as text, but the size of the bubbles instantly gives you an understanding of how the different budget items compare.

An online version in Flash is also available at thebudgetgraph.com

Just to be clear, this only shows the Discretionary Budget which totals $938 Billion. The total budget is $2.8 Trillion. Notice the circle in the background (just barely visible at the top and bottom) showing the National Debt of $9.35 Trillion.

One older version is the 2004 Budget.