The federal budget has been very much in the news for the past few weeks with a mammoth piece of legislation being talked about in Congress (in fact, it might be passed by the time this posts).
So what would you do if you could craft something similarly monumental?
As it turns out, several different groups have created online simulators for you to try your hand at adjusting the budget. You’ll see several are coming from a particular point of view and some folks with an inviolate agenda will doubtless be upset by all of them, but if umbrage isn’t your watchword, you might have some fun in waving your own magic budget wand.
Here are the ones I’ve found and used.
Federal Balancing Act
This one page simulator from the Bipartisan Policy Center gives you some of the most instant gratification of any of the simulators, as you can incrementally add or decrease percentages on various taxes on the revenue side and add or decrease funding on the expense side. Occasionally, a window will pop up lest you try and raise taxes higher than the simulation deems possible in the real world or if you attempt to zero out some of the expense line items — but you can dramatically change revenue and spending before that happens.
The Fiscal Ship
The product of the Hutchens Center and the Wilson Center with funding from various places, this simulator appears designed to be at home in civics classes by way of gamified elements in both graphics and sounds. The fact that you don’t get exact dollar figures in your choices (it’s all plus or minus “$” to “$$$$”) is mitigated by the fact that they regularly update the choices for cuts or funding based on current events.
America Off Balance: The Budget Calculator
Going in the opposite direction, there’s this calculator with nary a cartoon vessel in sight. As you might have guessed from the name, this offering from the Hoover Institution believes corrective action is a must… and they’re prepared to get wonky. The interface might take a little bit to get used to, but you can get very granular on a range of items with projections, so for some of you, this simulator is likely going to be your favorite.
Federal Budget Challenge
Like the Fiscal Ship, I’ve seen this one updated several times over the years with current events and trends. I’ve found it to occasionally buggy on some browsers, but it offers a number of options. If you like the style of this simulator and are a Californian, you may also like the California Budget Challenge, which appears to be using the same format.
Debt Fixer
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has a host of interactive tools, the debt fixer being one of them. Similar to The Fiscal Ship above, the simulator gives you choices for cuts or adjusted spending based on current events, but it provides specific, if high-level dollar amounts as well as info text for each policy decision.