Functions Defined by Data

Part 3: Federal Budget Deficits

For more than a generation, from the late 1970's to the late 1990's, the Federal government spent more money each year than it received. The yearly shortfall in money received compared to money spent is called the (annual) Federal budget deficit. The following table contains information about Federal budget deficits over a recent 16-year period. (These data are taken from Historical Tables, Budget of the U. S. Government, Fiscal Year 1992, supplemented by more recent newspaper articles.)

1. As you did for the postage rate and AIDS data, construct a list of data points for the Federal deficit data. Edit and enter the "skeleton" command in the worksheet.
2. Again, complete the "skeleton" plotting command in your worksheet to plot the deficit data. Experiment with plot options until you get as good a picture of these data as you can.
3. An interviewee on National Public Radio (Sept. 5, 1992) claimed that the Federal budget deficit was currently 1 million dollars per day. Is that statement consistent with the data above? If so, how do you figure it out? If not, what might explain the discrepancy?
4. In your worksheet, write a brief description in words of what you see in the deficit graph. What do you learn from the table or the graph that you did not know before?

We continue our discussion of Federal deficits in the next Part of the module.

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