About InsideGov
InsideGov is a companion to the news. When a story is about gas prices, mortgage rates, tariffs, deportations, the deficit, a new law or a Supreme Court ruling, this is where you can see the numbers behind it, charted from the government’s own records on the presidency, Congress and the Supreme Court.
Why I built this
Much of the news cycle is about numbers. Gas prices and mortgage rates come up constantly. Tariffs make headlines whenever a new round is announced. Deportations stay in the news as ICE enforcement shifts. The deficit is a slower-burning story that resurfaces with each budget fight. Congress makes news when a major bill passes, and the vote count shows how much support it really had. The Supreme Court’s biggest rulings arrive each June, and the headline is often the split. Articles quote those figures, but they rarely show them in context. You read that something rose or fell without seeing how it compares with last year or with the last administration. I wanted one place where anyone following the news can pull up the chart and see the trend for themselves.
Almost everything the federal government does leaves a public record: roll-call votes, executive orders, financial disclosures, trade statistics, court decisions, troop counts. Very little of it is easy to read. It is spread across dozens of agencies and published in formats meant for specialists. InsideGov does the work of lining it up once, in the open, so anyone can see what the records show.
Questions it helps answer
- How many executive orders has each president signed, and on what topics?
- How divided is Congress, and does my state’s delegation vote as a bloc?
- Which laws has Congress passed, and who voted for them?
- How wealthy are members of Congress, and how has their net worth changed?
- How have gas prices, mortgage rates, tariffs, jobs and the deficit moved from one administration to the next?
- How many people are removed, get green cards, become citizens or arrive as refugees each year?
- Where do U.S. troops and foreign aid go, and how has that changed?
- What has the Supreme Court decided, and how has its middle moved over time?
- Who held the White House, Congress and the Court when a landmark law passed or a big case was decided?
How it’s made and how to read it
Every number comes from a named public source through an automated, checked pipeline, and the code and data are open on GitHub. I choose the questions and the sources, and Claude writes the code. Each chart has Data notes saying what it measures and what to be careful about. The charts describe what the records show; they don’t claim that a president or party caused it. Methodology and sources has the detail.
Independence
InsideGov is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or funded by any government agency, party, campaign or advocacy group. It is a personal project and has no connection to my employer.
Who’s behind it
InsideGov is built and maintained by Corbett Hobbs. I studied international politics at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service and worked in a U.S. Senate press office. In 2013 I launched the original InsideGov.com at Graphiq, a company that turned large public datasets into charts anyone could browse or embed. Amazon acquired Graphiq in 2017 to help power Alexa’s answers.
Bringing InsideGov back has been a passion project. This version is entirely my own, so it can grow at its own pace.