U.S. Federal budget viewer: description

Click here to see the budget viewer.
The budget viewer allows the user to see data at different levels of detail, and to create pie charts and time series graphs of the data.
A blue > symbol next to a row indicates that more detail is available for that row. Click on the row to see the detail.
Dollar amounts in the tables are in thousands, except per capita amounts.
Data is shown from 1962 to the proposed 2013 budget.
The federal fiscal year begins October 1, so fiscal year 2013 runs from October 1, 2012, to September 30, 2013. Prior to 1976, the fiscal year began July 1. This means the three month period from July to September, 1976 is a special fiscal period called the transition quarter, so many of the time series graphs will show a dip at this time (because the amounts given are only for one quarter, not for a full year).
Population and price level figures are averages of monthly values for the months corresponding to the fiscal year.
Data is from the U.S. Budget, 2013, CD version, available at //bookstore.gpo.gov/collections/budget.jsp.
This is still a test version of this software.
The latest version of Java is needed to run this software. See //www.java.com/en/download/installed.jsp.

Main menu buttons:
- Move up Move one level up in the hierarchy of detail.
- To Top Move to the top of the hierarchy (the overal total of the budget)
- Pie Chart After clicking on the pie chart button, you need to click on a particular column to show the pie chart for that column. Next to the pie chart is a table of the data showing the fraction of the total in each category. The values for pie charts are arranged in descending order. Click anywhere on the screen to remove the graph from the screen and return to the table.
- Time Series After clicking on the time series graph button, you need to click on a row to show a time series graph for that row. The time series graphs include the data values and the percent change form period to period on the graph. The time series graphs are based at zero to provide a true picture of the relative values over time. Click anywhere on the screen to remove the graph from the screen and return to the table.
- Options Call for the options menu, which provides the following choices:
- Current $ Dollar values are all presented in current dollars--that is, the nominal amount of dollars actually spent, not adjusted for inflation
- Constant $ The dollar values are adjusted for inflation, based on the U.S. price index where the price level in 1982 to 1984 equals 1.
- Per Capita Dollar figures are divided by the population of the United States. The population numbers are given in thousands. Since both the dollar figures and population figures are in thousands, their ratio represents dollars per person.
- Const.$/Cap Dollar figures are presented as constant dollars per capita. This means they are corrected for inflation (as described above) and divided by the population.
- Main Menu Return to the main menu (described above).
Blue buttons with arrows at the top of the screen can be used to scroll the display left, right, up, or down, if there is an overflow in that direction. (You may also use the windows scroll buttons, but this will slide the headings out of view.)
It may take a minute or two for the data to load, depending on the speed of your internet connection.
Email comments to Douglas Downing, Seattle Pacific University, ddowning at spu.edu
Click here to see the budget viewer.