These are estimates that have been approved by the Bureau of the Budget.

FORBES: Who Sued Bloom Energy?

Public choice theory explains the incentives and behavior of the tens of thousands of government employees who work in the bowels of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Treasury, Office of Management and Budget, Economics and Statistics Administration, and countless other agencies who generate and massage spreadsheets day in and day out.

FORBES: Distorted Government Statistics Endanger Our Economic Health

By last count, no fewer than 106 federal agencies are tasked with gathering statistics, the most important being the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Census Bureau, U.S. Treasury, Internal Revenue Services, Office of Management and Budget, and Economics and Statistics Administration.

FORBES: It's Time For A Transparency-In-Government-Statistics Law

In 1901, according to a 1997 Bureau of Labor Statistics study, the average family spent almost half of their budget on food.

FORBES: Magazine Article

But compared to the resources available to Elizabeth Warren, the architect of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Schapiro is living large with her regulatory budget.

FORBES: Obama's New Consumer Protection Agency Will Have No Teeth

Mr Dodd's clunking compromise is to place a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau inside the Fed (where it gets a chunk of the Fed's budget), make its director a presidential appointee and allow the oversight council to overrule its decisions.

ECONOMIST: The Senate bill is finally published