FY 2020 Federal Budget

Users are introduced to the Federal budget overall, get some background on the federal budget deficit, and evaluate arguments about what the priorities should be in regard to the federal budget.

FY 2020 Federal Budget Policymaking Simulation
 Discretionary Spending

  • Users are presented the discretionary budget (the part of the budget that Congress sets every years) broken into 31 line items (e.g. transportation, education, defense etc.), and have an opportunity to raise and lower each one as they see fit.  As they go along, they receive immediate feedback about the impact of their changes on the budget deficit.

 General Revenues 

  • Next, users assess arguments about what priorities should be for federal taxes.  Then they get the opportunity to set tax rates for all of the major taxes including income taxes (they see the various options and set what they think the level should be for each income bracket) corporate taxes, capital gains and more.  Users also get to evaluate newly proposed taxes such as a tax on financial transactions or on carbon dioxide.  Once again, as they go through the simulation, they are able to immediately see the effect of their choices on the deficit.Users are presented the discretionary budget (the part of the budget that Congress sets every years) broken into 31 line items (e.g. transportation, education, defense etc.), and have an opportunit
FY 2020 Federal Budget