A Scaled Down Look at Spending, Revenue, and What's Being Cut
The national debt is being used to justify spending cuts - but do these cuts actually reduce it?
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The Problem of Scale
Our brains aren't wired to intuitively understand the difference between millions, billions, and trillions.
When we hear about the national debt reaching $36 trillion, or annual spending of $4.1 trillion, these numbers are so large they become almost meaningless. The human mind simply wasn't designed to comprehend quantities of this magnitude.
To put it in perspective:
The time between two pay periods
The length of a typical career
Longer than all of recorded human history
So how do we make sense of these astronomical figures? By scaling them down to numbers we can relate to.
Understanding the Scale of Government Finances
The national debt—currently at $36 trillion—is a number so large it's difficult to comprehend. Throughout this site, we've scaled down all government finances by a factor of 36 million to bring these enormous numbers into a range that's easier to grasp.
🏦National Debt
The total outstanding debt of the federal government
💰Annual Revenue (2024)
Money collected through taxes and other sources
💸Annual Spending (2024)
Government expenditure across all programs
📉Annual Deficit (2024)
The shortfall between revenue and spending each year
Each year, the government spends more than it collects in revenue, creating an annual deficit. This deficit is added to the national debt, which continues to grow year after year.
To put this in perspective: The cost just to service the debt—the interest payments alone—is $500 billion per year. This is money that doesn't fund any government services or investments—it's simply the cost of carrying the debt. These interest payments are now one of the fastest growing parts of the federal budget.
Data sources: U.S. Treasury Debt to the Penny, Revenue, and Spending data from U.S. Treasury (FY 2024).
The DOGE Cuts in Context
Recently, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced cuts to various government grants and contracts. But how significant are these cuts in the context of overall government finances?
The federal government spends about $186,417 a year in our scaled perspective. Let's examine these cancelled grants across different sectors, each designed to address important social needs.
4 Example Cancelled Grants Across Sectors
Support HIV-affected orphans and vulnerable children in South Africa
Beneficiaries:
723,421 orphans and vulnerable children and youth living with, affected by, and vulnerable to HIV in South Africa.
Train speech therapists for children with communication disorders
Beneficiaries:
Children with communication disorders in underserved neighborhoods and communities across the country.
Protect farmworkers from wildfire hazards
Beneficiaries:
Over 10,000 farmworkers in Washington State, with plans to scale nationally to protect agricultural workers across the country.
Provide food security for children and low-income families
Beneficiaries:
Children and low-income families who rely on USDA Food and Nutrition Service programs for food security and nutrition assistance.
The total savings from the four example grant cuts above represent a combined saving of just 15 cents in the context of our scaled federal budget. These are just a small sample of the thousands of cuts that make up the total DOGE savings.
The Scale Perspective
These examples illustrate the scale challenge: while the savings from each cancelled grant might sound substantial in isolation, they represent an incredibly small fraction of the federal budget—typically less than one ten-millionth of annual spending.
These are just a few of thousands of grants and contracts that have been cancelled in the name of reducing the national debt. While their fiscal impact is minimal—collectively representing a tiny fraction of federal spending—the social impact of these cancellations is substantial. Communities lose vital services, research projects are abandoned, and vulnerable populations lose critical support, all for savings that make virtually no difference to the national debt.
Sources: DOGE.gov and DOGE data scraper
Real Solutions vs. Symbolic Cuts
While DOGE cuts make headlines, they have minimal impact on the deficit. The Department of Government Efficiency has cancelled 0 grants and contracts (0 grants and 0 contracts) at a massive social cost to vulnerable communities, research programs, and essential services—all while reducing spending by just $0.0000. Let's examine just two policy options that eclipse the DOGE savings—and are good for ensuring corporations pay their fair share while closing tax loopholes and reducing carbon emissions while generating substantial revenue:
Tax All Foreign Income of U.S. Corporations
Apply the full U.S. corporate tax rate to all foreign income earned by U.S. corporations.
Tax Greenhouse Gas Emissions at $25 per Ton
Impose a tax of $25 per metric ton on greenhouse gas emissions, increasing by 2 percent annually.
Important Note on Comparing Savings
DOGE cuts represent static, one-time savings — money the government would have spent but now won't. These cuts have a discrete, uniform impact that doesn't compound or scale over time. Once a grant or contract is cancelled, that specific saving is complete.
In contrast, the policy alternatives shown here are tax measures that generate continuous revenue year after year. This is why we compare the total 10-year impact of both approaches — to provide an accurate picture of their relative effectiveness at addressing the deficit over time.
These are just two of dozens of policy options that could meaningfully address the deficit while maintaining critical services.
Source: Congressional Budget Office. All figures represent estimated savings over the 2025-2034 period.
Please note: only grants and contracts posted on the doge.gov website with receipts are counted towards the total saving value. For this reason, the total savings value on the doge.gov website may appear larger, however due to the lack of supporting receipts, this value is unverifiable.
Explore Further
Now that you understand the scale of the national debt, dive deeper into the details with our interactive tools and visualizations.
Budget Breakdown
Explore detailed breakdowns of debt, revenue, and spending
DOGE Cuts
Examine the impact of recent government efficiency measures
Deficit Reduction Options
Explore meaningful ways to address the national debt