The US Government's 2011 budget approval process has proven to be an abysmal mess. Although a government shutdown has been averted several times already with extensions, a final shutdown is expected on Friday if the current budget is not approved. According to reports, Democrats and Republicans spent the weekend working negotiating $33 billion worth of cuts. One might ask whether $33 billion amounts to anything while looking at a $1.27 trillion spending deficit. The President recently weighed in on the approval process, commenting that it would be the "height of irresponsibility" to continue the spending battle.

The 2011 budget in it's current form is available (pdf) from the White House or in a browser-friendly format through GPO. The Washington Post has published an interactive, visual view of the US budget over the past 80 years which shows some interesting trends.

• the government receives three times more money from individual income taxes than they do from corporate taxes
• despite the arguments on the cost of the GWOT, defense spending has remained pretty much the same for the past thirty years
• 2011 represents a decline from Obama's previous budgets, but continues his third year of record deficit spending since the 1940s