Ten Charts Essential to Understanding the Federal Debt


Since April 2010, the Pew Fiscal Analysis Initiative has published several reports explaining the medium-and long-term fiscal challenges facing the federal government. With stagnating economic conditions and the passage of new legislation, especially the Budget Control Act of 2011, the outlook for the deficit and debt has changed considerably over the past six months.

We have created ten charts that illustrate how the choices made over the last 10 years contributed to our nation’s debt and the challenges currently facing the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction.

10 Essential Fiscal Charts (PDF)

To download an individual chart from the report please click here.

A print version of the PDF is available here.



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