Heritage Foundation Leadership for America

WASHINGTON, MARCH 25, 2008—How much of your money does the U.S. government plan to spend—and for what? Do we really lay out less for defense, despite the War on Terrorism, than in the 1970s and ’80s? How high would your taxes have to go to pay for benefits promised to retiring baby boomers?

You can find the answers to these questions, along with other tax and budget trends important to ordinary Americans, depicted in the 41 information graphics making up the 2008Federal Revenue and Spending Book of Charts, an online resource from The Heritage Foundation.

Visitors to Heritage’s custom Web site (heritage.org/research/features/BudgetChartBook) may view, download, post or e-mail any of the charts and graphs. Each is prepared and updated by researchers at the Washington think tank’s Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies and Center for Data Analysis.

“Journalists, members of Congress and interested taxpayers all rely on the Book of Charts for details on federal spending and taxes—current, historical and projected,” says Alison Acosta Fraser, director of the Roe Institute. “For example, users may quickly see—and share with others—charts depicting the coming tsunami of entitlement spending, highlighting the need for policy reform.”

With new electronic features allowing users to bookmark, embed or share charts of their choice, the Book of Charts is ready to be mined by reporters, commentators, congressional staff, students of public policy, net-roots—anyone concerned about the nation’s mounting fiscal crisis.

Revised charts in the 2008 edition show that:

• Spending on defense remains well below the historical average, even with the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• Congress larded on a whopping 11,737 earmarks for 2008 despite promising to cut the number of pet spending projects in half.
• The top 10 percent of income earners pay 70 percent of all federal income taxes