The federal government spends about $3.1 Trillion dollars a year. Just where does that money go?

Jess Bachman answers that question every year with his amazingly detailed poster entitled Death and Taxes, which displays data about the federal discretionary budget. Here you'll find information about various federal programs and departments, with larger graphics indicating larger dollar amounts. It's a great way to explore exactly where our leaders have decided to spend our tax dollars. Bachman displays portions of the poster on his Web site: Wallstats.com.

Even though I have this poster hanging in my office and I look at it every day, it's still hard to imagine three trillion dollars. It's even harder to imagine just what goes into that accounting of federal spending. Kimberly Amadeo, About.com's economics expert, has put together a collection of articles about the budget. One thing I learned, although I guess I sort of knew this, is that the government makes assumptions about how much revenue it will generate and what directions the economy is taking. This will make for interesting after-tax-season reading for me, since this is one part of the government process that I don't understand as well as I should.

And this reminds me of the famous quote by Benjamin Franklin about death and taxes. I looked up the full quotation, which is much more interesting than I remember: "Our Constitution is in actual operation; everything appears to promise that it will last; but in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes."