Authors
Nicola Moore
Assistant Director
Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies
Stephen Keen
Research Assistant
Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies
Contact the Authors
Email the authors
Address:
The Heritage Foundation
214 Massachusetts Avenue, NE
Washington, DC 20002
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to John Fleming, Senior Data Graphics Editor at The Heritage Foundation, for his work on the design and presentation of the charts in this book.
Technical Notes
The charts in this book are based mostly on data from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The charts using OMB data display the historical growth of the federal government to 2008 while the charts using CBO data display both historical and projected growth from as early as 1940 to 2082. Projections utilizing OMB data are taken from OMB's February 2009 budget release “A New Era of Responsibility: Renewing America's Promise.”
The charts provide data on an annual basis (except where computations are made for Administration averages), with vertical lines denoting different congressional leadership. As a corollary, all spending and revenue data are based on a fiscal year. However, for the purpose of simplicity, they are treated as calendar years in the charts. Prior to 1976, the fiscal year was from July 1 to June 30. Following that year, the current format of October 1 to September 30 was implemented. In the charts, the transition is omitted for clarity. Also, in all charts in which spending or revenue is measured by taxpayer, taxpayers are counted as the number of individual income tax returns filed (according to data from the Internal Revenue Service) per year. Thus, married couples that both work but file a joint return are counted as a single combined-income unit. Most of the data are adjusted for inflation in 2008 dollars. Furthermore, specific information regarding data is indicated at the bottom of each chart.
Charts designating Presidential Administrations begin with the fiscal year in which the Administration presented its first budget. In the case of 2009, an atypical year in which much was spent before the Administration's first fiscal year budget (FY2010), all revenue and spending up to the CBO January 2009 “Budget and Economic Outlook” was attributed to President Bush. All revenue and spending thereafter is attributed to President Obama.