Voices

Online Game Lets People Manipulate Federal Budget

A new online game is allowing citizens to pretend to call the shots in how the federal budget should be allocated.

The game, Budget Hero 2.0, has been played 100,000 times since it premiered a week ago, allowing players to decide how taxpayer dollars should be spent. The game was developed by American Public Media’s Public Insight Network and the Wilson Center for International Scholars. Users can compare their budget results with other players’ and share them on Twitter and Facebook.

Budget Hero 2.0 also lets players provide feedback on the game and share tips with other budget setters for making it more effective. Based on that feedback, the developers said they updated the game Friday to include more policy options and a new “The Great Compromise” badge, featuring policy proposals that have emerged as major fixtures of the various bipartisan deficit-reduction plans, including the Gang of Six proposal and the Bowles-Simpson Commission.

To play the game, visit www.budgethero.org.

Maybe you'll be able to solve Washington's debt limit mess in time to prevent a government default.

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