Federal Budget Gets Wired: Interactive Web Simulation

[Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

                                For Release: May 30th, 1995
                                For more info, call:
                                        Nathan Newman (510) 452-1820
                                        Anders Schneiderman (510) 643-8293
                                        ccer () violet berkeley ed
                                        Center for Community Economic Research




                The Federal Budget Gets Wired:
        Citizens on the Internet Can Now Play Senator
                On Interactive Budget Simulation


Berkeley, CA:  Taking interactive civic education to a new level,
UC-Berkeley's Center for Community Economic Research (CCER) today
demonstrated a new on-line National Federal Budget Simulator that lets
anyone on the World Wide Web try their hand at bala ncing the budget.  The
simulation is located at:


        http://garnet.berkeley.edu:3333/budget/budget.html


        Going beyond the rhetoric and headlines of budget choices, this
simulation allows Internet users to control a whole range of budget
choices, submit a budget, and interactively see the changes in the federal
deficit.  Internet "Senators" can get into the nitty-gritty of controlling
mass transit spending, weapons procurement, national parks allocations,
and social welfare spending and see results of cuts in all areas of the
$1.5 trillion budget.


        Additionally, Internet "Senators" are given interactive control of
the $455 billion in "tax expenditures" in the federal budget.  Some have
called these tax deductions the largest hidden entitlements of the federal
budget and this simulation demonstrates how adding them into the budget
debate opens up far wider possibilities for balancing the federal budget.


        Other features of the simulation include:


   **  Generating automatic bar charts that lets you see the results of your
         budget choices
   **  Line-by-line printouts of the results of specific categorical cuts or
         increases
   **  Links to analyses of the federal budget on the Internet from a
         variety of perspectives
   **  The ability to view an "Internet Budget"--the tabulation and
         averaging of all successfully balanced budgets on the simulation.




        The National Budget Simulator is part of the ongoing work of the
Center for Community Economic Research to promote economic and civic
literacy through interactive Internet tools.  "The Internet has a lot of
flash and glitz, but most of what is on the Wo rld Wide Web are cute
toys," notes Dr. Anders Schneiderman, CCER's co-director.  "This National
Budget Simulator is one of the first tools on the Internet that really
takes advantage of the interactive nature of the technology to enhance
civic education."


        The Center's Economic Democracy Information Network (EDIN) project
has supported and trained a whole range of community organizations in
getting on-line and helped bring their voices to the Information
Superhighway. The EDIN project has been cited in sou rces ranging from USA
Today to The Nation.  PC Computing declared the EDIN server (located at
http://garnet.berkeley.edu:3333/) one of the 29 "Highlights of the
Internet" in their September 1994 issue.  The Center is also an ongoing
consultant to the Ass ociation of Bay Area Governments in getting cities
and government agencies in Northern California on-line


        "The next challenge for those dedicated to information access and
democracy," said CCER co-director Nathan Newman, "is to create tools that
make economic policy choices clear to the public. Numbers gets thrown
around by politicians and we are working to create the tools and the links
to background information that will allow citizens to 'get under the hood'
of those numbers."


                        --- end ----


Federal Budget Gets Wired
--for more info, call (510) 452-1820


Center for Community Economic Research
c/o UC-Berkeley Institute for Industrial Relations
 2521 Channing Wy.  Berkeley, CA 94704
(510) 643-8293