For a few weeks now, the Washington Post has posted a gallery of charts to help explain what is meant by the ‘Fiscal Cliff’ (http://goo.gl/V46U6). Although the 7 charts are a collection of simple bar charts, from a data visualization perspective they leave a lot to be desired. In this slide deck, I've redesigned all 7 charts.

1. The ‘Fiscal Cliff’ explained in charts
A critical review of a recent gallery of charts
from the Washington Post
Jonathan A. Schwabish
jschwabi@yahoo.com
@jschwabish

2. The Set Up
For a few weeks now, the Washington
Post has posted a gallery of charts to help
explain what is meant by the ‘Fiscal Cliff’:
http://goo.gl/V46U6
Although the 7 charts are a collection of
simple bar charts, from a data
visualization perspective they leave a lot
to be desired

3. The Challenge
This slide deck contains my redesign of all 7
charts.
I followed 5 basic rules:
1. Use the actual data
2. Do not overly modify text or labels
3. Use a single color scheme and font
4. Only use Microsoft Excel
5. Apply good data visualization principles

4. Use the Actual Data
(and do not add extra data elements)
Except for Slide #6—”Sequester cuts to
the FEMA budget”—all of the data were
either available on the source websites or
in the gallery itself (for slide #6, I eyeballed the
values)

5. Do not overly modify text or labels
(unless absolutely necessary)
Even though some of the labels were
shorthand or incomplete, the objective of
the challenge was to improve the
visualizations, not correct syntax

6. Use a single color scheme and font
The gallery is a collection of charts from
multiple sources (4 appear to have been
made directly by Post staff) so the color
schemes vary as do the fonts
A single design scheme can improve the
appearance and clarity of the gallery
(I use the ‘Corbel’ throughout)

7. Only use Microsoft Excel
Because many people use Excel
extensively, I wanted to show that
creating quality data visualization does
not require complex software or
knowledge of programming languages

8. Apply good Data Visualization
Principles
My redesigns incorporate simple
strategies:
• keep data and labels close together
• deemphasize tick marks, gridlines,
axes (i.e., ‘chartjunk’)
• where possible, include data directly
on the chart

9. Final Notes
Each of the redesigned charts is preceded by a
copy of the original chart, either from the
source website or as a screen shot from the
Washington Post (hence the blurriness in some
of the images)
These redesigns are a start. Please feel free to
add comments to this SlideShare page or
contact me directly with thoughts, critiques,
or suggestions

10. A Detailed Parenthetical
I just wanted to insert a detailed note about the first two charts from
the Tax Policy Center (TPC). In the first chart, I chose to focus on the
distributional analysis and sacrifice the imagery of the rising average
federal tax rate as incomes rise (that is, the height of the bars). I didn’t
get much of the distributional story from the original TPC
distributional chart because it was just a mess of stacks and colors. The
second chart—Average Federal Tax Rates by Income Quintile—tells me
that basic story more clearly anyways. An alternative approach would
be to use several small charts (‘small multiples’) and stack them
together in some way, but I chose to stick to the spirit of the challenge
and only redesign the single chart. Plus, had TPC made a series of
small charts, it’s not clear to me the Washington Post would have
picked it up.

11. The ‘Fiscal Cliff’
Explained in Charts

13. Fiscal Cliff Components
(Percentage)
AMT Patch
2001-03 low/middle cuts
Estate Tax
Extenders
Stimulus Credits
2001- High Income cuts
2003 - High Income capital
gains and dividends
Health reform taxes
Payroll Tax
Lowest Second Middle Fourth Highest 80-99% Top 1% All
Quintile

15. Average Federal Tax Rate, by Cash Income Percentile, 2013
(Percent)
40
Increase due to tax changes
7.2
Baseline
30
5.8
5.1
5.0
20 4.2
3.8 31.2
25.2
22.8
10 4.1 19.4
17.4
14.0
8.0
3.7
0 0.6
Lowest 2nd Middle 4th Highest 80-99% Top 1% All
Quintile

17. Size of Components of the "Fiscal Cliff"
(Billions of dollars)
Bush Tax Cuts 221
Payroll Tax Cut 95
Debt Ceiling Deal 65
AMT/Other 65
Unemployment Benefit Expansion 26
ACA Taxes 18
"Doc fix" expiration 11
0 50 100 150 200 250

19. Marginal Tax Rate Increase Under the Fiscal Cliff, by Income Bracket
(Percent)
Thousand
<10 64.4
dollar
increments
10-20 26.5
20-30 5.6
30-40 2.8
40-50 2.2
50-75 7.8
75-100 16.7
100-200 8.5
200-500 6.2
500-1,000 26.2
>1,000 16.4
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

21. Economic Impact of Fiscal Cliff, Zandi Multipliers
(Billions of dollars)
500
435
Budget Impact
Economic Impact
400
300
201 196
200 181
158
150
130
100
69
60
50
29 30
23 20
0
Tax Cuts Sequester Jobs Measures AMT Patch Tax Extenders ACA Taxes Doc Fix

23. Sequester Cuts to the FEMA Budget
(Millions of dollars)
600
580
400
200
175
75
25 25
0
Disaster Relief State, local programs Salaries and expenses Emergency food, shelter Flood hazard mapping

25. Effect on Fiscal Cliff Components on Deficit and GDP
Effect on Deficit Effect on GDP
(Billions of dollars) (Percentage)
24 Payroll /UI
0.4
40 Bush cuts (high)
42 Bush cuts (low/middle)
0.4
0.1
108
Nondefense
0.7
Total Effect: Total Effect:
$503 billion 2.9%
288 Defense
1.3

26. Contact me
www.slideshare.net/jschwabish
jschwabi@yahoo.com
@jschwabish