Budget

Budget

A policy document allocating burdens (taxes) and benefits (expenditures)

Deficit

An excess of federal expenditures over federal revenues

Budget

A policy document allocating burdens (taxes) and benefits (expenditures)

Deficit

An excess of federal expenditures over federal revenues

Expenditures

Federal spending of revenues. Major areas of such spending are social services and the military

Income Tax

Shares of individual waves and corporate revenues collected by the government. The Sixteenth Amendment explicitly authorized Congress to levy a tax on income. See also Internal Revenue Service

Sixteenth Amendment

The constitutional amendment adopted in 1913 that explicitly permitted Congress to levy an income tax

Federal Debt

All of the money borrowed by the federal government over the years and still outstanding

Tax Expenditures

Revenue losses that result from special exemptions, exclusions, or deductions on federal tax law

Social Security Act

A 1935 law passed during the Great Depression that was intended to provide a minimal level of sustenance to older Americans and thus save them from poverty

Medicare

A program added to the Social Security system in 1965 that provides hospitalization insurance for the elderly and permits older Americans to purchase inexpensive coverage for doctor fees and other health expenses

Uncontrollable Expenditures

Expenditures that are determined not by a fixed amount of money appropriated by Congress but by how many eligible beneficiaries there are for a program of by previous obligations of the government

Entitlements

Policies for which Congress has obligated itself to pay XX level of benefits to Y recipients. Social Security benefits are an example

House Ways and Means Committee

The House of Representatives committee that, along with the Senate Finance Committee, writes the tax codes, subject to approval of Congress as a whole

Senate Finance Committee

The Senate committee that, along with the House Ways and Means Committee, writes the tax codes, subject to approval of Congress as a whole

Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974

An act designed to reform the congressional budgetary process. Its supporters hoped that it would also make Congress less dependent on the president's budget and better able to set and meet its own budgetary goals

Budget Resolution

A resolution binding Congress to a total expenditure level, supposedly the bottom line of all federal spending for all programs

Reconciliation

A congressional process through which program authorizations are revised to achieve required savings. It usually also includes tax or other revenue adjustments

Authorization Bill

An act of Congress that establishes, continues, or changes a discretionary government program or an entitlement. It specifies program goals and maximum expenditures for discretionary programs

Appropriations Bill

An act of Congress that actually funds programs within limits established by authorizations bills. Appropriations usually cover one year

Continuing Resolutions

When Congress cannot reach agreement and pass appropriations bills, these resolutions allow agencies to spend at the level of the previous year