Federal Government Revenues and Outlays
The purpose of this assignment is to analyzed Federal Government's Revenues and Outlays. Where does the money come from and where does the money go?
Your goal is to create something similar as the infographics created by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) using the most current date available.
Assignment
In order to obtain the data please go to CBO's Historical Budget Data and click on the most recent year completed.
Once you have the excel file use it in order to answer the following questions.
Listen to this very nice podcast from Planet Money about the work done by CBO
Government Revenues
Question 1:
Time series graphs (from 1962 until most recent)
The Individual Income Taxes as a share of GDP
The Payroll Taxes as a share of GDP
The Corporate Taxes as a share of GDP
Write a paragraph (about 250 words) discussing these graphs.
Video Instructions:
Question 2:
Pie Chart
For the most recent year create a pie chart breakdowns the revenues into various taxes and receipts.
Write a paragraph (about 250 words) discussing this graph.
Video Instructions:
Question 3:
Composition of Federal Revenue between 1962 until most recent year
In this question, you will in a sense repeat what you have done in question 2. However, instead of looking at just one year, you will do the analysis for all the years for which you have data available.
For this question you should have 4 categories: Individual Income Taxes, Payroll Taxes, Corporate Taxes, Other Taxes (this should include everything else)
Write a paragraph (about 250 words) discussing this graph.
Video Instructions:
Question 4:
Go to the IRS site and write down the income tax brackets for the most current year. Here is a link to the tax brackets for 2023.
Go to St. Louis Fed Fred and create a chart for U.S Individual Income Tax: Tax Rates for Regular Tax: Highest Bracket
Write a paragraph (about 250 words) discussing this graph.
Video Instructions:
Government Outlays
Question 5:
Go back to your excel data that you got from the CBO table - the same one you downloaded for question 1 and 2.
Create a pie chart for the most recent year, showing the breakdown of Government Outlays into three categories (Discretionary, Mandatory, and Net Interest)
Write a paragraph (about 250 words) discussing this graph.
Note: You should used the same approach as in Question 2 to answer this question.
Question 6:
For the most recent year create a pie chart showing the breakdown of Mandatory Spending.
Write a paragraph (about 250 words) discussing this graph.
Note: You should used the same approach as in Question 2 to answer this question.
Question 7:
In the table look at the Billions of Dollars spent on Income Security (see table titled 5. Mandatory Outlays Since 1962)
First, explain what is included in this category and then explain what has happen to this over the past 5 years. You should connect this to Covid-19 pandemic and the government deficits and debt.
Question 8:
For the most recent year create a pie chart showing the breakdown of Discretionary Spending into Defense vs . Nondefense spending.
Write a paragraph (about 250 words) discussing this graph.
Some additional information
Where does the money come from? Using National Priorities Project website explain what are the main sources of revenues for the Federal government. Policy Basics: Where Do Federal Tax Revenues Come From?
Where does the money go? Using National Priorities Project website explain the federal spending? What is discretionary and mandatory spending?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_tax_in_the_United_States