About — American Dollar Story | Mission & Methodology

American Dollar Story is an independent public data project with a simple mission: every American taxpayer should understand where their money goes. Not through thousand-page government reports or partisan talking points, but through clear, interactive visualizations that make $6.75 trillion in federal spending — and $3.5 trillion more at the state level — genuinely comprehensible.

The US federal budget is the single largest financial operation on Earth. It funds Social Security checks for 67 million retirees, a military larger than the next ten nations combined, healthcare for 150 million Americans through Medicare and Medicaid, and everything from interstate highways to the International Space Station. Yet most taxpayers have only a vague sense of where their money actually ends up.

We built this site because we believe transparency is a prerequisite for democracy. You can't have an informed opinion about tax cuts, deficit spending, or entitlement reform without first understanding the numbers. And those numbers shouldn't require an economics degree to interpret.

What We Do

We take publicly available budget data and transform it into interactive tools:

The Dollar Coin — our homepage visualization breaks every federal dollar into its component parts, so you can see at a glance that 21.6 cents goes to Social Security, 13.1 cents to debt interest, and 12.9 cents each to Medicare and Defense.
Personal Tax Receipt — enter your salary and see exactly how much of your federal taxes fund each program. A $75,000 earner pays roughly $10,000 in federal income tax and FICA — we show you where every dollar goes.
Sankey Flow Diagrams — click any spending category to see how money flows from revenue sources through departments to specific programs. Follow the money from your paycheck to a specific government service.
State Budget Explorer — all 50 state budgets visualized with interactive maps, spending breakdowns, and revenue comparisons. See how California's $297 billion budget differs from Texas's $153 billion approach.
National Debt Clock — real-time tracking of the $35+ trillion national debt, with historical context and per-capita breakdowns.

Our Data Sources

Every figure on this site comes from official, publicly available government data:

Congressional Budget Office (CBO) — the nonpartisan agency that provides Congress with budget and economic analysis. Their Budget and Economic Outlook is our primary source for federal spending and revenue totals.
US Treasury Department — the Monthly Treasury Statement provides actual (not estimated) spending and revenue figures.
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) — the President's Budget provides detailed departmental and program-level spending data.
IRS Statistics of Income — tax bracket data, filing statistics, and revenue breakdowns.
Social Security Administration — trust fund reports, beneficiary data, and actuarial projections.
National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO) — state-level budget data compiled from all 50 states.
US Census Bureau — Annual Survey of State Government Finances for state spending comparisons.

Methodology

Spending figures represent total federal outlays for Fiscal Year 2024 (October 2023 through September 2024). Categories follow CBO's functional classification of the budget. Sub-program breakdowns in our Sankey diagrams are approximations based on agency budgets and CBO analysis — we note where estimates are used.

The personal tax calculator uses 2024 federal income tax brackets and FICA rates. It assumes a single filer taking the standard deduction ($14,600) with employment income only. It does not account for state income tax, the Alternative Minimum Tax, Net Investment Income Tax, retirement contribution deductions, or itemized deductions. Your actual tax liability will differ — consult a tax professional for precise calculations.

State budget data is compiled from NASBO reports, Census Bureau surveys, and individual state budget documents for fiscal years 2023-2024. Figures include both general fund and total funds (including federal transfers). State budgets vary enormously in structure and accounting practices, so cross-state comparisons should be treated as approximate.

All figures are in nominal dollars (not inflation-adjusted) unless otherwise noted.

Who We Are

American Dollar Story was created by Andy Vickers, a technologist based in Pennsylvania who believes civic data should be accessible to everyone — not just policy wonks and economists. The site is entirely self-funded, receives no government grants, and has no political affiliation.

We use no tracking cookies. Google Analytics provides aggregate visitor statistics only. We don't sell data, run sponsored content, or accept payments from any political organization.

Our Sister Site

We also run The British Pound, applying the same transparent approach to UK government spending. Together, the two sites help taxpayers on both sides of the Atlantic understand where their money goes.

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