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Wow, very nicely designed, and I love how fast it is. Some clarification on a few of the entries would be nice if you have time. For instance, what does "Healt

by hugh3 16y ago

Wow, very nicely designed, and I love how fast it is. Some clarification on a few of the entries would be nice if you have time. For instance, what does "Healthcare" mean once Medicare and Medicaid are excluded? And what's the difference between "compulsory" and "discretionary" spending (when surely the government could eradicate the compulsory stuff if it wanted to). Perhaps you could have explanations of each term if you click on 'em? Also having "miscellaneous" as the third highest number is a little unsatisfying, can you break that down a bit more? But these are nitpicks, nice work!

theli0nheart 16y ago
Thank you! I'll add in some tooltips for the items, because you're right, it's hard to know exactly what they entail. EDIT: Just added tooltips, I'm taking descriptions straight from Wikipedia (usually the first paragraph).
digitallogic 16y ago
"There are two types of government spending — discretionary and mandatory. Discretionary spending, which accounts for roughly one-third of all Federal spending, includes money for things like the Army, FBI, the Coast Guard, and highway projects. Congress explicitly determines how much to spend (or not spend) on these programs on an annual basis. Mandatory spending accounts for two-thirds of all government spending. This kind of spending is authorized by permanent laws. It includes "entitlements" like Social Security, Medicare, and Food Stamps — programs through which individuals receive benefits based on their age, income, or other criteria. Spending levels in these areas are dictated by the number of people who sign up for these benefits, rather than by Congress." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_spending#Federal_Spending http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_spending#Federal_Spe...
_delirium 16y ago
From the Wikipedia link the data's from it looks like "Healthcare" under discretionary spending means the budget of the Department of Health and Human Services. That includes a lot of healthcare research and public-health kinds of stuff, like the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and National Institutes of Health (NIH). Also includes some not-really-healthcare stuff, though, like the Office of Civil Rights, and the faith-based initiatives thing that Bush created. And some is more gray area, e.g. the FDA does drug approvals, which is clearly "healthcare", but it also inspects beef, which is good for health but not what people normally think of as healthcare.

by hugh3 16y ago

theli0nheart 16y ago

Thank you! I'll add in some tooltips for the items, because you're right, it's hard to know exactly what they entail. EDIT: Just added tooltips, I'm taking descriptions straight from Wikipedia (usually the first paragraph).

digitallogic 16y ago

"There are two types of government spending — discretionary and mandatory. Discretionary spending, which accounts for roughly one-third of all Federal spending, includes money for things like the Army, FBI, the Coast Guard, and highway projects. Congress explicitly determines how much to spend (or not spend) on these programs on an annual basis. Mandatory spending accounts for two-thirds of all government spending. This kind of spending is authorized by permanent laws. It includes "entitlements" like Social Security, Medicare, and Food Stamps — programs through which individuals receive benefits based on their age, income, or other criteria. Spending levels in these areas are dictated by the number of people who sign up for these benefits, rather than by Congress." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_spending#Federal_Spending http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_spending#Federal_Spe...

_delirium 16y ago

From the Wikipedia link the data's from it looks like "Healthcare" under discretionary spending means the budget of the Department of Health and Human Services. That includes a lot of healthcare research and public-health kinds of stuff, like the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and National Institutes of Health (NIH). Also includes some not-really-healthcare stuff, though, like the Office of Civil Rights, and the faith-based initiatives thing that Bush created. And some is more gray area, e.g. the FDA does drug approvals, which is clearly "healthcare", but it also inspects beef, which is good for health but not what people normally think of as healthcare.