Update: Chart Book Exposes Federal Spendathon in Graphic Terms

WASHINGTON, April 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The federal government is spending more per household than ever before. At this rate, by the time this spring's college graduates turn 67, federal spending on just three programs -- Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security -- could consume two-fifths of the nation's economic output.

The 2010 Budget Chart Book, a highly visual online resource just released by The Heritage Foundation, shines a light on such ominous tax-and-spend trends in the federal budget. These trends threaten not only the nation's economy but its very security, Heritage analysts warn.

Visitors to heritage.org/BudgetChartBook may download, post or e-mail any of 39 information graphics, 12 of which are new to this updated edition. Included are links to relevant Heritage research and tools for bookmarking, embedding and information sharing through Twitter, Facebook and RSS feeds.

"We've seen unprecedented concern and curiosity from Congress, the media and regular taxpayers about runaway federal spending and deficits," says Nicola Moore, assistant director of Heritage's Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies. "The Budget Chart Book presents those issues in clear graphics and everyday terms."

Two charts are interactive, allowing visitors to navigate the rising tsunami of entitlement spending or see which earners pay the bulk of income taxes.

Such images put into perspective how quickly the federal government is setting deficit-spending records that lead to ever-higher tax burdens. Journalists, concerned taxpayers and other researchers will discover:

• At a time of layoffs and pay cuts for many workers, federal spending grew more than eight times faster than median income.
• Recent financial bailouts, while outrageously expensive, were a pittance compared with the ballooning federal budget.
• Most federal revenue comes from individual Americans in the form of the personal income tax.
• Entitlement spending and interest payments on debt are squeezing out available dollars for vital programs such as defense, homeland security and education.

The Heritage Foundation is the nation's most broadly supported public policy research institute, with more than 630,000 individual, foundation and corporate donors. Heritage, founded in February 1973, has a staff of 255 and an annual expense budget of $75.3 million.

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SOURCE The Heritage Foundation