Planning Tool: The Budget Graph

Now that you've paid your taxes, see where they're going onThe Budget Graph. While you could get that information on the government's OMB site, the folks at the budget graph have done the heavy lifting for you (and also added a few graphics to hold your attention). You can search by branch or by governmental department and find out how the total funds compare to the previous year.

For example, if you select "Health and Human Services," you see that "Administration for Children and Families" was allocated $12.329 billion, a 10% decrease from last year (that's a loss of ~$1.4 B). A pretty significant cut, and all the more reason to support Susie Flynn and CDF (Digg her here).

Meanwhile, the FDA is getting $1.641 B, a 10% increase (a gain of a mere $151 million). This increase starts to feel small in light of the fact that only 1.3% of imported foods are inspected and many are found to be tainted.

All in all, a cool tool (though the site seems to be a bit slow at time of posting).