Bustle
Zoe Ferguson
02/10/2015
So President Barack Obama has rolled out his proposal for the 2016 fiscal year budget. Where is the money going? If you’re a visual learner like me, a handy pie chart goes much further than a dense paragraph of econo-speak in demonstrating where the President’s spending priorities lie. Luckily, the National Priorities Project released a report Monday entitled ”The President’s 2016 Budget in Pictures.”
The nine charts included in the report address questions many Americans have about what proportion of the budget’s staggering $4.1 trillion allowance will go towards different priorities. Does the President care as much as you do about sustainable energy? What percentage of the budget will fund education? Is military spending going up or down? What cause takes up the largest portion of the proposed national budget? (The answers may surprise you.)
Obama has talked a big talk about improving education standards across the U.S., and he has repeatedly expressed concerns about the country’s carbon footprint. But these interests take up a tiny percentage of his proposed budget — only three percent of the total spending budget, combined.
The information released by the NPP can be confusing — what’s the difference between the total spending budget, the discretionary spending budget, and the mandatory spending budget? We’ll try to help you understand these questions and more through the beauty of charts. Let’s begin...more
