The Books
The Books follow a dollar through the federal system: raised as revenue, written into a budget, spent by agencies, and returned across the states. Each shelf answers a different question.
Revenue asks what the Treasury collected. Congress asks what the budget plans to raise and spend. Agencies ask who is awarding or outlaying dollars. States ask how those flows look when stacked by state.
Stay inside The Books when you want money literacy. Other paths cover Congress as lawmaking, the Court, the presidency, and elections.
Federal money tables usually speak in fiscal years. The federal fiscal year starts in October. Mixing FY labels with calendar election years is a common source of wrong comparisons.
State balance pages use a data year control so you can see which archived OSC workbook is on screen. Methodology explains gaps when a year is missing.
State pages compare federal dollars raised from a state with federal dollars spent in that state for the archived year. That is a balance-of-payments style view, not a judgment about whether a state “deserves” more or less.
Rankings, map, politics, and compare tools sit on top of the same state archive. Read Definitions when a receipt type or outlay line is unclear.
Each shelf cites the publisher archive it draws from (Treasury, CBO, USAspending, OSC state ledgers, and related series). Prefer those origin links when a figure must be certified.