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I have found this website very helpful in the past few years when researching government financial info: http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/total_spending_char

I have found this website very helpful in the past few years when researching government financial info: http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/total_spending_chart http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/total_spending_chart I reached out to the website developer/maintainer/creator, Chris Chantrill, telling him I appreciated his work on the site and asking if he needed help (seems like a 1 man operation?) - here's how he responded: Thanks! I started the site in 2007 when "I couldn't take it any more." Since then it has just growed. Here's how you can help. Suggest a feature. Best wishes, --Chris Chris' site provides unbiased commentary on the importance/relevance of certain measurements, and gives access to download data. It could use a bit of a UX/UI overhaul but it's an amazing feat for a one-man operation to track and present all these different sources of gov data. I'll be interested to see how Balmer's site compares in functionality (and neutrality) especially given his vast resources and team of experts.

Clownshoesms 10y ago
The UI is actually making me feel angry, for some reason I can't put my finger on.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- r00fus 10y ago
  Could it be the front-and-center red * bolded * text? Or perhaps the logo with the clipped words?
  - Clownshoesms 10y ago
    Hehe that might be part of it, I actually feel claustrophobic reading it. A neutron star of text and links.
    - Sunset 10y ago
      The font size is "wrong" for everything and completely inconsistent and all over the place. White spacing is all wrong too. The font color is non-contrasting, because gray on blue is a brilliant idea. I'd literally fire someone if they submitted this as graphics design.
      - Clownshoesms 10y ago
        I don't want to detract from it's good points in terms of collating information, but yep this feels like the kryptonite of the designers I've known. I'm no novice at creating horrors either, it's more of a piece of art to me than something to be eradicated.
- test1235 10y ago
  there's loads of different sized fonts with varying line heights, and a mix of serif and sans fonts
tomcam 10y ago
Delighted to learn about this stunning resource. Comparing the two will be illuminating.
JamieF1 10y ago
Can't believe I'm posting something positive about the Irish government but they recently launched this site which is actually pretty decent. Pity other governments don't do the same. http://whereyourmoneygoes.gov.ie http://whereyourmoneygoes.gov.ie
- Vinnl 10y ago
  That is really nice.
- phreeza 10y ago
  Germany has something very similar, only in german though. It tracks income and expenses, as well as the actual and planned budgets for the past years: https://www.bundeshaushalt-info.de/ https://www.bundeshaushalt-info.de/
  - rsp1984 10y ago
    Very cool! Is the same also available for the spending of Bundeslaender as well as communities? Lots of taxes also go there.
- kikimaru 10y ago
  I wonder how many Americans will see this & get confused when "Defence" isn't a main column (it's in "Other", <1% of GDP)
  - hueving 10y ago
    Probably very few. It's constantly advertised by both sides of the political spectrum that the US spends massive amounts on defense to act as world police.
- barking 10y ago
  The optics are good but it's effectively useless in determining whether money is being spent wisely or not. It only gives a very high level picture. It would need to allow one to go a whole lot deeper for people to be able to work out what is value and what isn't. How does the office of taoiseach spend €182 million per annum, for example? It should be possible to see exactly where the money was spent all the way down to an invoice. The data needed to be aggregated originally, presumably, to deliver what they do publish so what we want is access to the raw stuff.
nl 10y ago
This in one some people did fro GovHack in Australia: http://theopenbudget.org http://theopenbudget.org
- Clownshoesms 10y ago
  Interesting thanks, hadn't seen it. I delve into the Treasury Portfolio wedge and I get a sinister "Outcome 1" looking as big as our welfare budget (I think from a quick squiz this says 120 billion for welfare but I thought it was closer to 180 billion). What's all the stuff under the Treasury portfolio?
  - spangry 10y ago
    I can't figure this out myself. I could swear that budget accounting is designed to be as unreadable and incomprehensible as humanly possible. Take a look at http://www.budget.gov.au/2016-17/content/bp4/html/05_art-16.htm http://www.budget.gov.au/2016-17/content/bp4/html/05_art-16.... and scroll right to the bottom. Taken at face value, this seems to suggest total actual appropriations just for the Treasury portfolio were $765bn in 2015-16. Given this equates to about 43% of nominal GDP in 2015, there must be something else going on here that I''m missing.
- jondubois 10y ago
  I remember I got a letter a while ago from the Australian Tax Office which showed a general break-down of all costs with histograms. The devil is in the details though.
Nition 10y ago
Since everyone's posting their country's version of this, this is one for New Zealand: http://www.wheresmytaxes.co.nz http://www.wheresmytaxes.co.nz
Shivetya 10y ago
I posted a link to the story about how Office of Management and Budget under Trump is trying to clean up government but it didn't gain any traction. The link summarizes a link to the PDF from the OMB about how they are challenging every level of government. Considering how much tax money the government takes in it is astounding to me they run such a deficit. Plus you must also account for all the taxes and spending at State, City, and Local, levels. All this money and how much is slipping through the cracks from helping people and keeping the infrastructure going Basically it comes down to determining if their activities are non essential, if they flunk a cost benefit test, do they violate federalism, and more. Cato summary : https://www.cato.org/blog/mulvaneys-plan-reform-government https://www.cato.org/blog/mulvaneys-plan-reform-government pdf from OMB : https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/omb/memoranda/2017/M-17-22.pdf https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/omb/me...
- pc86 10y ago
  > Considering how much tax money the government takes in it is astounding to me they run such a deficit. It's astounding to you that a superpower spends a lot of money? When we spend more on our military than the next n countries combined? > if they flunk a cost benefit test I consider myself a conservative, especially in comparison to most folks on HN, but this is nonsense. Conservatives in Florida demanded drug testing welfare recipients, even when data shows that fails a cost benefit test pretty handily.
Pigo 10y ago
I suppose I'll throw a shout out to www.opensecrets.org, who have an API I've used on a project in the past. You can see the top contributors to congressional campaigns and presidential. You can see down the $5 your grandmother gave to your senator's campaign, as it's all a matter of public record. It's interesting to see how businesses in your area will vote with their wallet.

Clownshoesms 10y ago

The UI is actually making me feel angry, for some reason I can't put my finger on.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
r00fus 10y ago
Could it be the front-and-center red * bolded * text? Or perhaps the logo with the clipped words?
- Clownshoesms 10y ago
  Hehe that might be part of it, I actually feel claustrophobic reading it. A neutron star of text and links.
  - Sunset 10y ago
    The font size is "wrong" for everything and completely inconsistent and all over the place. White spacing is all wrong too. The font color is non-contrasting, because gray on blue is a brilliant idea. I'd literally fire someone if they submitted this as graphics design.
    - Clownshoesms 10y ago
      I don't want to detract from it's good points in terms of collating information, but yep this feels like the kryptonite of the designers I've known. I'm no novice at creating horrors either, it's more of a piece of art to me than something to be eradicated.
test1235 10y ago
there's loads of different sized fonts with varying line heights, and a mix of serif and sans fonts

tomcam 10y ago

Delighted to learn about this stunning resource. Comparing the two will be illuminating.

JamieF1 10y ago

Can't believe I'm posting something positive about the Irish government but they recently launched this site which is actually pretty decent. Pity other governments don't do the same. http://whereyourmoneygoes.gov.ie http://whereyourmoneygoes.gov.ie

Vinnl 10y ago
That is really nice.
phreeza 10y ago
Germany has something very similar, only in german though. It tracks income and expenses, as well as the actual and planned budgets for the past years: https://www.bundeshaushalt-info.de/ https://www.bundeshaushalt-info.de/
- rsp1984 10y ago
  Very cool! Is the same also available for the spending of Bundeslaender as well as communities? Lots of taxes also go there.
kikimaru 10y ago
I wonder how many Americans will see this & get confused when "Defence" isn't a main column (it's in "Other", <1% of GDP)
- hueving 10y ago
  Probably very few. It's constantly advertised by both sides of the political spectrum that the US spends massive amounts on defense to act as world police.
barking 10y ago
The optics are good but it's effectively useless in determining whether money is being spent wisely or not. It only gives a very high level picture. It would need to allow one to go a whole lot deeper for people to be able to work out what is value and what isn't. How does the office of taoiseach spend €182 million per annum, for example? It should be possible to see exactly where the money was spent all the way down to an invoice. The data needed to be aggregated originally, presumably, to deliver what they do publish so what we want is access to the raw stuff.

nl 10y ago

This in one some people did fro GovHack in Australia: http://theopenbudget.org http://theopenbudget.org

Clownshoesms 10y ago
Interesting thanks, hadn't seen it. I delve into the Treasury Portfolio wedge and I get a sinister "Outcome 1" looking as big as our welfare budget (I think from a quick squiz this says 120 billion for welfare but I thought it was closer to 180 billion). What's all the stuff under the Treasury portfolio?
- spangry 10y ago
  I can't figure this out myself. I could swear that budget accounting is designed to be as unreadable and incomprehensible as humanly possible. Take a look at http://www.budget.gov.au/2016-17/content/bp4/html/05_art-16.htm http://www.budget.gov.au/2016-17/content/bp4/html/05_art-16.... and scroll right to the bottom. Taken at face value, this seems to suggest total actual appropriations just for the Treasury portfolio were $765bn in 2015-16. Given this equates to about 43% of nominal GDP in 2015, there must be something else going on here that I''m missing.
jondubois 10y ago
I remember I got a letter a while ago from the Australian Tax Office which showed a general break-down of all costs with histograms. The devil is in the details though.

Nition 10y ago

Since everyone's posting their country's version of this, this is one for New Zealand: http://www.wheresmytaxes.co.nz http://www.wheresmytaxes.co.nz

Shivetya 10y ago

I posted a link to the story about how Office of Management and Budget under Trump is trying to clean up government but it didn't gain any traction. The link summarizes a link to the PDF from the OMB about how they are challenging every level of government. Considering how much tax money the government takes in it is astounding to me they run such a deficit. Plus you must also account for all the taxes and spending at State, City, and Local, levels. All this money and how much is slipping through the cracks from helping people and keeping the infrastructure going Basically it comes down to determining if their activities are non essential, if they flunk a cost benefit test, do they violate federalism, and more. Cato summary : https://www.cato.org/blog/mulvaneys-plan-reform-government https://www.cato.org/blog/mulvaneys-plan-reform-government pdf from OMB : https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/omb/memoranda/2017/M-17-22.pdf https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/omb/me...

pc86 10y ago
> Considering how much tax money the government takes in it is astounding to me they run such a deficit. It's astounding to you that a superpower spends a lot of money? When we spend more on our military than the next n countries combined? > if they flunk a cost benefit test I consider myself a conservative, especially in comparison to most folks on HN, but this is nonsense. Conservatives in Florida demanded drug testing welfare recipients, even when data shows that fails a cost benefit test pretty handily.

Pigo 10y ago

I suppose I'll throw a shout out to www.opensecrets.org, who have an API I've used on a project in the past. You can see the top contributors to congressional campaigns and presidential. You can see down the $5 your grandmother gave to your senator's campaign, as it's all a matter of public record. It's interesting to see how businesses in your area will vote with their wallet.