This week we announced the release of our new book A People’s Guide to the Federal Budget, and in yesterday’s blog post we admitted to being idealists: A book can change the world, we said. But it’s not just because we’re idealists that we think so. Consider the evidence.

Regular Americans can tackle federal budget deficits – when armed with information. A study by the Program for Public Consultation gave randomly-selected Americans solid budget information and asked them to consider trade-offs faced by lawmakers in Washington. Respondents made choices and cut deficits, most often by reducing military ...

National Priorities Project is thrilled to announce the release of our new book, A People's Guide to the Federal Budget. Call us idealists, but we at NPP believe that a little information goes a long way, and that a book can change history.

A People's Guide to the Federal Budget is a friendly, down-to-earth handbook for Americans of all ages and backgrounds who want to have a voice in our democracy and ensure the U.S. federal budget reflects their priorities. It's even got cartoons in it.

Most Americans say they're not happy with the way ...

A few weeks ago I was on the radio program Background Briefing with host Ian Masters. We were talking about National Priorities Project's Tax Day numbers, which show you how the federal government spent every penny of your income taxes in 2011.

"One sort of wishes the federal government provided these numbers," my host lamented.

In fact, the White House used to put out a Citizen's Guide to the Federal Budget every year, but it was discontinued during the George W. Bush presidency. President Obama has not resurrected the practice. Meanwhile, valuable information about how the federal government ...

Our final pie of Pie Week! We showed you total federal spending, mandatory spending, and discretionary spending. Today's flavor of pie? Where the money comes from to fund the federal budget.

Tomorrow we'll review all the great kinds of pie we brought your way this week.

Pie Week continues today with the part of the federal budget that often receives the most scrutiny: discretionary spending.

Discretionary spending is often the most scrutinized part of the federal budget because it's the part that lawmakers directly determine each year during the appropriations process. That makes discretionary spending different from mandatory spending, which is determined not at the discretion of lawmakers, but rather by how many people qualify for benefits from mandatory programs like Medicare. Check out yesterday's post for the mandatory pie.

And stay tuned! We'll have another fresh slice of pie for you tomorrow.

This week we're talking about pie. Federal budget pies, that is. The first pie we're looking at is total federal spending.

Join us every day this week for a different slice of pie! Check back here or on Twitter and Facebook.

All sorts of great questions come in on our Facebook page. One question we hear a lot is, How much of the federal budget actually goes to the military? In some charts, you see that military is more than half the budget. But in others, you see that it's much less than that. This week at National Priorities Project we're talking about all different kinds of budget pies, so this is our chance: Let's settle this once and for all.

Out of the total federal budget, the military accounts for around 18 percent.

But then there's ...

In honor of Earth Day on April 22, we're talking this week about federal spending on energy and environment. Betty from Hailey, Idaho, wrote to us about subsidies for oil companies. Thanks for writing, Betty – it's an interesting subject. Warning: We may have to get a bit wonky.

The federal government subsidizes all sorts of things through the tax code. For instance, you may take a tax deduction for interest on your home mortgage. That's a subsidy for homeowners. Similarly, there are many such tax subsidies that benefit corporations. And a few of those benefit oil companies ...

In his last post, my research colleague Chris Hellman explained where we are in the annual federal budget process. He noted that President Obama released a budget in February; the House passed a very different budget in March; and the Senate has declined to do a budget. The seeds are planted for stalemate this election year, Chris wrote. If Congress cannot pass a budget for President Obama to sign by Oct. 1 – which is the start of fiscal year 2013 – then lawmakers will have to pass temporary spending legislation, called continuing resolutions, to fund the federal government.

Why can't ...

Rebecca from Lititz, Pennsylvania, asked: Why are there different versions of the budget, and who decides which one becomes the actual budget for the federal government?

It’s a good question. You might have read in the news recently about the House budget introduced by Rep. Paul Ryan. And back in February, you might have heard about President Obama’s new budget. So, how do these different proposals turn into a single federal budget?

President Obama's budget, released back in February, was a proposal for Congress to consider. And the recent House budget was a budget resolution. A budget ...