About This Project

About This Project

Making federal spending transparent and understandable through interactive data visualization and real-world comparisons.

Our Mission

The federal budget affects every American, yet understanding where trillions of dollars go can be overwhelming. Our mission is to make federal spending transparent and understandable by:

  • Visualizing spending data in intuitive, interactive formats
  • Providing real-world comparisons that translate billions into tangible terms
  • Presenting data without partisan interpretation or political bias
  • Citing all sources and showing our methodology openly

We believe an informed citizenry is essential to democracy, and understanding how tax dollars are spent is a fundamental part of civic engagement.

Data Sources

All data comes from official government sources

USAspending.gov
Official source of federal spending data from the US Treasury
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Congressional Budget Office
Nonpartisan analysis of budget and economic issues
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Office of Management and Budget
Presidential budget documents and historical tables
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Methodology

How we calculate comparisons and present data

Data Collection
Budget data is sourced directly from USAspending.gov API, which aggregates spending from all federal agencies. Data is refreshed daily to ensure accuracy.
Comparison Calculations
All comparisons use the most recent available data for the comparison unit (e.g., GDP, national park budgets, infrastructure spending). Dollar amounts are adjusted for inflation using CPI-U when comparing across years.
Visualization Design
Treemap visualizations use proportional area to represent spending amounts, making it easy to compare relative sizes. Color coding indicates department categories for quick identification.
Editorial Standards
All featured comparisons are fact-checked and include source citations. We strive for political neutrality and present data without partisan interpretation.
Open Source
Built in public, free to use and modify

This project is open source and available on GitHub. We believe transparency in government spending should extend to the tools we build to visualize it. You can:

  • View and audit all source code
  • Report bugs or suggest features via GitHub Issues
  • Contribute improvements via pull requests
  • Fork the project for your own use
  • Review our data processing pipeline
View on GitHub
Contact

Have questions, suggestions, or feedback? We would love to hear from you.

Email

contact@budgetdashboard.example

GitHub

Open an issue for bug reports or feature requests

Privacy

We respect your privacy and believe in minimal data collection.

  • No tracking cookies
  • No analytics or third-party scripts
  • No personal data collection
  • No user accounts required
  • All data visualization happens client-side

We only store anonymous server logs for security and performance monitoring, retained for 30 days.

This is an independent project and is not affiliated with any government agency.

All data is sourced from official government sources and is provided as-is for informational purposes.