GovZempic

Trim the federal fat. Watch your check go up.

GovZempic is an interactive thought experiment: what if cutting government spending wasn't just an abstract political debate — but something you could feel in your wallet every month?

The premise is simple. Take 50% of any savings from cuts to the federal budget and distribute it equally to every citizen as a monthly UBI dividend. The other 50% goes toward deficit reduction. Drag sliders, kill programs, watch your check go up.

This idea came from an essay I wrote: How to Make DOGE Sexier. Go read it first — it explains why DOGE failed as a political project and what would actually make it popular.

Fair warning

This is a vibecoded project I built in a few hours for fun. The data is sourced from public budget figures (CBO projections and enacted appropriations) but I can't guarantee it's 100% accurate. It might have bugs. The numbers are illustrative — the point is the thought experiment, not the spreadsheet.

Don't make financial or policy decisions based on this. Play with it, have fun, and treat it as what it is: a toy that makes an idea tangible.

Fork it, it's MIT

Clone it, fork it, remix it, do whatever you want — it's MIT licensed.

Want to add your country's data? The budget data lives in src/data/ as JSON files (see budget.json for the US format and budget-pl.json for an example of another country). You can add your own country with Claude Code, Codex, or any agentic coding tool — just prompt it to follow the existing schema. Double-check the numbers against your government's official budget publications before submitting a PR.

Getting Started

git clone https://github.com/mattbratos/govzempic
cd govzempic
bun install
bun dev