Brian Riedl (Manhattan Institute), 2024 Chart Book Examines Spending, Taxes, and Deficits: 

With Washington pushing deficits nearing $2 trillion, the Manhattan Institute’s Brian Riedl has released the 2024 edition of his book of charts examining the federal budget, spending, taxes, and deficits.

The 136-page chart book begins by broadly examining the rising budget deficits and national debt and then dives deeper to show the policies driving the $115 trillion in new deficits projected over the next three decades (and how drastically the picture worsens if interest rates remain elevated). Next, the chart book tallies the costs of common spending and tax proposals and determines whether those costs can be offset by proposed tax increases and defense cuts. The report also provides a full accounting of President Biden’s fiscal record thus far. Finally, it examines trends in tax revenues and tax progressivity, common budget myths, and offers a full accounting of the fiscal records of Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump.

These charts—most of which rely on publicly available data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Office of Management and Budget, Census Bureau, and U.S. Treasury—nevertheless defy conventional wisdom about spending, taxes, and deficits.

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