Reader Orientation
Start Here
The Citizen Audit is built as a civic research publication: readers should be able to understand what is being claimed, how those claims are bounded, and how to verify them without relying on institutional trust alone.
What The Citizen Audit is
The Citizen Audit is a structured public publication focused on identifiable federal spending lanes, the records used to support them, and the point where public evidence stops.
It is not a commentary site, personality brand, or opinion feed. The project is organized around claims, sources, decisions, limitations, and revision history so readers can inspect the work directly.
Why it exists
Public disputes over government spending often collapse into slogans, selective screenshots, or blended numbers that hide incompatible accounting bases.
This project exists to separate what can be documented from what cannot yet be documented, publish the reasoning in public, and leave unresolved gaps visible instead of smoothing them over.
How this differs from opinion content
- Claims are linked to Source IDs, Decision Log rules, Open Question records, and section context.
- Unsupported estimates are excluded instead of inserted for rhetorical effect.
- Known limitations remain visible even when they weaken a cleaner narrative.
- Corrections are expected to identify a specific claim, page, section, and source trail.
Reading path for first-time visitors
- Start here for orientation and publication scope.
- Read the executive summary for the bounded findings and major takeaways.
- Read the methodology before treating any topline as interchangeable with another basis.
- Inspect the source library and decision log.
- Read the full audit and appendices.
- Use the challenge page if you believe a claim should be corrected.