Study X
The Debt, the Waste and the Tax
The national debt from 1790, CBO’s path for the next thirty years, and the two questions: what is wasted, and who pays.
See what’s coming. Solve what’s here.
We shorten the distance between a problem and its solution.
Debt and Interest
What the country owes, what it pays to carry it, and what would change either.
Debt held by the public
Highest in data back to 1997
$32.54 trillion
Average interest rate on marketable debt
Highest since Sept 2008
3.518%
Net interest, last 12 months
Up $80.8 billion in a year
$1,051.8 billion
10-year Treasury yield
Up 1.09 points in a year
5.22%
Federal funds target, upper bound
Down 0.25 points in a year
4.00%
30-year fixed mortgage rate
Highest since Nov 2023
7.40%
Study XII
The Interest Bill
What the federal government pays to carry its debt, what makes it grow, and which levers stop it.
Study XI
Five Thousand Dollars Each
What a $5,000 check to every citizen would cost, where the money would go, and what the borrowing would add.
The Federal Budget
Where the money comes from, where it goes, and who decides.
Receipts, last 12 months
Up $168.1 billion in a year
$5,403.3 billion
Outlays, last 12 months
Highest since March 2021
$7,395.8 billion
Deficit, last 12 months
Highest since May 2025
$1,992.5 billion
Customs duties, last 12 months
Lowest since Aug 2025
$173.2 billion
Individual income taxes, last 12 months
Up $189.5 billion in a year
$2,845.5 billion
Corporate income taxes, last 12 months
Down $70.7 billion in a year
$381.4 billion
Study IV
Every Federal Dollar
Where $7.01 trillion came from and went in fiscal 2025, traced to the account and back through the century.
Study V · Part One
Every Federal Dollar, Mapped
FY2025’s 1,312 accounts and five years of receipts: what the money buys, where it lands and the lobbying around it.
Study V · Part Two
Who Pays and Who Gets
FY2025’s $9.8 trillion, four ways: money out by purpose, money in by tax, benefits by state and income, and the whole ledger.
Study IX
Every Dollar of War
Defense, veterans and the world since 1940, per resident and in fiscal 2025 dollars, and what it bought.
The Economy
How the economy is measured, and why the official numbers disagree.
Consumer prices, 12-month change
Up 0.5 points in a year
3.4%
Unemployment rate
Down 0.2 points in a year
4.2%
Nonfarm payrolls, monthly change
Down from +76,000 a year earlier
+29,000 jobs
Real GDP growth
Down from 4.0% a year earlier
2.2% annual rate
Regular gasoline, U.S. average
Up $1.236 in a year
$4.354 a gallon
Goods trade balance
Lowest since March 2025
−$136.6 billion
Study I
Which Inflation?
Nine published measures of inflation: in July 2026 they disagreed by 1.22 percentage points.
Study II
Two Reports, One Economy
In nearly every year since 1948 the Joint Economic Committee has bound the majority’s and minority’s accounts into one document.
Study III
The Same Question, Different Numbers
Four credible estimates give four answers to one question, and in every case the gap has a documented cause.
The States
What each state gets from Washington, what it raises itself and what it keeps in reserve.
State and local government employment
Up 16,000 in a year
20,645,000 jobs
State tax collections, quarterly
Highest in data back to 1994
$501.5 billion
Federal grants to state and local governments
Highest since Q3 2021
$1,026.3 billion, annual rate
Medicaid enrollment
Lowest since April 2020
65.97 million people
SNAP participants
Lowest in data back to 2019
36.35 million people
Public construction spending
Highest in data back to 1993
$547.8 billion, annual rate
Study V · Part Three
Federal Dollars by State, Over Time
What each state is recorded as receiving since FY2014, and why $1.16 trillion of FY2025 Medicare is booked to the payee’s state.
Study XIX · New
Every State Dollar
Federal money was 34% of state general revenue in fiscal 2024: what it pays for, what the 2025 law shifts and what states hold.
The Region
Federal money, federal jobs and federal rules where they land: Maryland, Virginia, the District and the Bay.
Unemployment rate, D.C., Maryland and Virginia
D.C. lowest since Jan 2025
D.C. 5.7% Md. 4.1% Va. 3.6%
Federal government jobs, Washington metro, not seasonally adjusted
Lowest in data back to 1990
311,900 jobs
Total nonfarm jobs, Washington metro
Down 61,900 in a year
3,305,300 jobs
Initial claims, D.C., Maryland and Virginia
Up 119 claims in a year
5,259 claims
Consumer prices, Washington area, 12-month change
Up 1.6 points in a year
4.1%
House prices, Washington, DC-MD (MSAD)
Lowest since Q2 2025
388.9 index
Study VIII
Every Federal Job in the Region
What happened to the federal payroll in Washington, Maryland and Virginia between January 2025 and August 2026.
Study VII
Every Dollar to the Bay
About two billion dollars a year moves through the Chesapeake restoration: where it comes from, who holds it, who gets the work.
Study VI
Every Pound of Nitrogen
What is kept out of the Chesapeake Bay, what still gets in and what each pound costs: 57 percent of the way to the nitrogen goal.
Study XVIII · New
What the Region Makes
Federal agencies and the armed forces produced 28% of the District’s GDP in 2025: what the three economies make, earn and export.
Government
Who works for it, what Congress ran on, and what it did.
Federal civilian employment
Down 232,000 in a year
2,682,000 jobs
Federal employment, except Postal Service
Down 238,200 in a year
2,083,300 jobs
Postal Service employment
Up 5,700 in a year
598,400 jobs
Federal compensation of employees
Down $21.0 billion in a year
$599.6 billion, annual rate
Treasury General Account, closing balance
Up $83 billion in a year
$935 billion
Government spending and investment, share of GDP
Down 0.1 points in a year
17.3% of GDP
Study VIII
Every Federal Job
Every federal civilian job shed from January 2025 to September 2026, and, through May 2026, by agency, kind and place.