Death and Taxes: 2008

April 18, 2007 10:12 AM

TheBudgetGraph.com just released it's 2008 version of the massive federal budget graph. You just paid taxes right.... right? Well find out what you just paid for. Lots of improvements in this version including the entire 2.9 trillion dollar budget in a smaller inlay graph and a complete breakdown of the Global War on Terror funding. Not for the faint of heart... or dial up users.
posted by mibs (28 comments total)

here is a direct link
posted by mibs at 10:14 AM on April 18, 2007

why is this not freeware?
posted by parmanparman at 10:22 AM on April 18, 2007

uh.. it is free. the website that is, the poster, i dont think so.
posted by mibs at 10:34 AM on April 18, 2007

Yeah, sucks that the budget poster isn't CC licensed
posted by parmanparman at 10:36 AM on April 18, 2007

parmanparman writes "why is this not freeware?"

The information the poster represents is freely available. The poster's creator uses this information to create a visual representation, but it is his own work.
posted by krinklyfig at 10:40 AM on April 18, 2007

i've seen mods and fakes of this before. very similar looking.
posted by mr_book at 10:44 AM on April 18, 2007

The information the poster represents is freely available. The poster's creator uses this information to create a visual representation, but it is his own work.

I'm not being a critic of the artwork.
posted by parmanparman at 10:52 AM on April 18, 2007

I’d like to see a van diagram of where the “cluster-fuck” and “quagmire” budgets do and do not overlap.
posted by French Fry at 10:55 AM on April 18, 2007

I can't find NASA.
posted by stbalbach at 10:58 AM on April 18, 2007

heh, dialup.

modems still exist?
posted by quarter waters and a bag of chips at 11:10 AM on April 18, 2007

stbalbach - look at the center of the poster (the flag ring). At about 4 o'clock on the ring is the NASA symbol : 17.310 Billion.
posted by ALongDecember at 11:28 AM on April 18, 2007

Why does the "Construction" subsection of "Global War on Terror" include Iraq, Afghanistan, and California? What are they planning for 2008?
posted by hoverboards don't work on water at 11:29 AM on April 18, 2007

modems still exist?

I have a Telex machine in my apartment, it still works. It's got a 1200 baud modem.
posted by parmanparman at 11:37 AM on April 18, 2007

I can't find NASA

17.310 Billion (near the middle)
posted by HyperBlue at 11:38 AM on April 18, 2007

If by middle I mean upper-left (near Air Force).
posted by HyperBlue at 11:39 AM on April 18, 2007

The most interesting thing (for me) is how we'd have no deficit if we had no debt: Debt interest is $261b, while deficit is $239b
posted by noble_rot at 11:52 AM on April 18, 2007

Someone should stitch all these bits together so I don't have to grab&scroll to read it. Lots of us have 1680x1050 monitors, how about letting us use 'em?
posted by hjo3 at 12:04 PM on April 18, 2007

We are paying $200,000,000 for flares?

(upper right hand corner, 10th line down)
posted by quin at 12:28 PM on April 18, 2007

Flares of Solid Gold. You should see then glisten in the Iraqi sun.
posted by Freen at 12:41 PM on April 18, 2007 [1 favorite]

The most interesting thing (for me) is how we'd have no deficit if we had no debt: Debt interest is $261b, while deficit is $239b
posted by noble_rot at 2:52 PM on April 18

Does this chart, and the federal budget on which it is based, include the $122 billion emergency war funding bill working it's way through Congress?
posted by Pastabagel at 12:44 PM on April 18, 2007

parmanparman writes "I'm not being a critic of the artwork."

Neither am I. However, I'd have to ask the creator why he chose to sell it rather than give it away, as any answer I can give is speculation, but I imagine it's due to the time involved, plus the fact that he's already making money doing it.
posted by krinklyfig at 1:00 PM on April 18, 2007

If you want to piece it together. Go ahead.

http://www.thebudgetgraph.com/poster/newZoom/
posted by IronWolve at 1:45 PM on April 18, 2007

However, I'd have to ask the creator why he chose to sell it rather than give it away
Because printing and shipping posters costs money?

posted by caffeine_monkey at 1:59 PM on April 18, 2007

The most interesting thing (for me) is how we'd have no deficit if we had no debt: Debt interest is $261b, while deficit is $239b

For the amount of money we pay on interest every year, the country could easily give health insurance to every American. Bam. Like that.

It's worth noting when Republicans say, "deficits don't matter."
posted by verb at 4:26 PM on April 18, 2007

The black circle marked as "classified"—that's a Death Star program code-named "Chenyville."
posted by disgruntled at 5:58 PM on April 18, 2007

The smallest dot I can find is only 12 million dollars in diameter. It branches off of "other agencies."
It is the Office of Government Ethics.
posted by duende at 6:20 PM on April 18, 2007 [1 favorite]

Looking at that impressive poster just reinforces the bizarro world that the US government and most of its voters inhabit. Your balance of expenditures is so different to most developed nations that it's quite extraordinary. Principally 'defence' expenditures of course.
posted by wilful at 7:49 PM on April 18, 2007

Metatalk.

mibs, you did read this very large warning on the posting page, didn't you? You could hardly not have.

Note: You read the guidelines, right? Because linking to your own site or a project you worked on in this space will result in a deletion and your account will be banned. Post it to MetaFilter Projects to announce your work instead, which was designed especially for this purpose.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:07 PM on April 19, 2007