Where do the trillions of dollars we pay in taxes go? Sure, the answer's public record, and you can see a copy of Obama's new budget yourself. But unless you're a policy wonk, you won't want to wade through it. You'd get a better sense by looking at a great big chart--like this one, designed by Jess Bachman, whose company, Wallstats, transforms reams of boring data into posters for your wall. The newest poster--the fourth one so far--outlines the 2009 budget. The entire poster is six square feet, but you can see a detailed, zoomable version here. The size of each circle represents the size of each agency--and there are over 500 of them in total, with budget items ranging from the V-22 Osprey to public broadcasting. Spot statistics tell you what the percentage change was, over 2008--so that you can tell exactly what President Bush's priorities were in his final federal budget.

2010 and the current budget haven't made it into poster form yet--though Bachman is working on it. But if you're curious, check out the visualizations here and here.

One more bit of infographics news: The Sunlight Foundation got a $4 million grant from eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, to create information graphics of the government's current activities.

Related: Visualizing the Economic Stimulus

[Via The Moment]