The Deficit Dilemma

In fiscal year 2025 the federal government collected $5.2 trillion and spent $7.0 trillion. Interest on the debt passed defense spending. The Social Security trust fund runs dry in 2032. Everyone has an opinion about what to do. Almost nobody has done the arithmetic. THE DEFICIT DILEMMA hands you the budget. • One turn per fiscal year, 2026 to 2035. Each year: the front page, one crisis to resolve, six levers in your hand and three political capital to move them. • 41 real levers you set to any number: the corporate rate, the retirement age, the payroll cap, defense dollars, a carbon price, Medicare's payment rates. Each is priced from Congressional Budget Office, Treasury and peer-reviewed estimates, and every tax has a real Laffer curve. • 24 events with no clean answers: a Gulf Coast hurricane, a regional bank run, a Treasury auction that stumbles, a pandemic, the 2032 Social Security trust-fund cliff. • An economy that can turn on you: a real business cycle, recessions that blow up the deficit, interest that compounds, growth effects from schools and research that arrive years later. • Six factions that remember: seniors, working families, business, the military, progressives, deficit hawks. Midterms every two years. Lose the presidency in 2028 or 2032 and your plan is repealed. • A grade for what actually happened, not what you planned. Finish a term and keep governing to 2050. • "Where the money goes": the whole FY2025 budget, spending and revenue, with plain-English explanations. • No account. No tracking. Your game saves on your device. Free with ads. One optional purchase removes the banner and between-year ads for good; the optional rewarded favors and the second chance stay available to everyone. Every number has a source and every lever explains why it costs what it costs. The model is simple enough to describe in six lines (and the app does), so you can argue with it. That is the point. Data: U.S. Treasury Monthly Statement, CBO Monthly Budget Review and Budget Outlook, CBO Options for Reducing the Deficit, MedPAC.