Fiscal Service Releases Your Guide to America's Finances, 2019
October 25, 2019
Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Bureau of the Fiscal Service (Fiscal Service) today released Your Guide to America's Finances. The digital guide increases public awareness of the federal government's finances in a simple, straightforward, and engaging product. The guide was designed to help Americans understand the core financial concepts of revenue, spending, deficit, and debt and the part these concepts play in the overall financial picture of the United States.
The guide presents a comprehensive overview of trillions of dollars processed by the federal government each year in a user-friendly format. Each section is broken out by key concepts and their relationship to the larger financial picture. Website visitors will see the source of funds, where the money goes, trends over time, how the U.S. compares to other countries, and more.
The guide was created in response to feedback from the public, who said they want information to be accessible, presented in plain language with engaging, interactive visualizations. "We actively seek feedback about how we can present this wealth of information in a way interesting and accessible." said Justin Marsico, Fiscal Service Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Data Transparency. "Our team interviewed more than 200 people across the country to understand their familiarity with, and interest in, federal finance. We built our site based on what they told us they would find useful."
USAspending.gov and its sister site datalab.usaspending.gov promote transparency in government by providing spending data available to all citizens. Using a storytelling approach, combined with data visualizations, site visitors can dig into federal spending data across a variety of topics including homelessness analysis, competition in federal contracting, and much more.
For more information about the Guide, USAspending,gov or the DataLab, please visit datalab.usaspending.gov/Americas-finance-guide. To learn more about the Fiscal Service, visit fiscal.treasury.gov and follow us on Twitter@FiscalService.