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CHAPTER TWO: The Nature of Government

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For research on how the federal government spends its money, the basic source is the federal budget, published by the Office of Management and Budget (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/). OMB annually publishes two useful reports: Analytical Perspectives, which provides background information on issues like federal taxing, spending, and lending programs; and Historical Tables, which provides long-term data on federal budget trends. Many of the key budget tables are available for download in Excel format.

In addition, the Congressional Budget Office (http://www.cbo.gov/) assembles federal budget data, and is especially useful for tracking trends in entitlement and discretionary spending and in federal government revenue.

The best source of information about trends in state and local government finances is the U.S. Census Bureau (http://www.census.gov/govs/www/index.html).

For international comparisons, the "statistics portal" at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is valuable. OECD is an international organization that tracks the policy and financial issues facing nations around the world. See http://www.oecd.org/home/.