your solution of time series for context seems like a form of appeal to authority. because it was x last year, x+5% can't be bad! (appealing to the authority of

your solution of time series for context seems like a form of appeal to authority. because it was x last year, x+5% can't be bad! (appealing to the authority of the budget maker in this case) appropriate context would be a breakdown of what x consists of, not just what it was last time period, and how that changed over time. then viewers can decide for themselves what's reasonable as a whole budget based on its parts. appropriate visualizations can provide breakdowns like this without much added complication. but as you noted, letting readers think for themselves is not in the interests of the media, whose power lies in the control they can exert on what we think.