Ap Government Vocabs Chapter 14

Front 1

Budget

Back 1

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

Front 2

Deficit

Back 2

An excess of federal expenditures over federal revenues

Front 3

Expenditures

Back 3

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

Front 4

Revenues

Back 4

The financial resources of the federal government.

Front 5

Income Tax

Back 5

Shares of individual wages and corporate revenues collected by the government.

Front 6

Sixteenth Amendment

Back 6

The constitutional amendment adopted in 1915 that explicitly permitted Congress to levy an income tax.

Front 7

Federal Debt

Back 7

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

Front 8

Tax Expenditures

Back 8

Defined by the 1974 Budget Act as “revenue losses attributable to provisions of the federal tax laws which allow a special exemption, exclusion, or deduction.”

Front 9

Social Security Act

Back 9

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.

Front 10

Medicare

Back 10

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 expenses.

Front 11

Incrementalism

Back 11

The belief that the best predictor of this year’s budget is last year’s budget, plus a little bit more (an increment). According to Aaron Wildavsky, “Most of the budget is a product of previous decisions.”

Front 12

Uncontrollable Expenditures

Back 12

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 or by previous obligations of the government.

Front 13

Entitlements

Back 13

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

Front 14

House Ways and Means Committee

Back 14

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

Front 15

Senate Finance Committee

Back 15

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

Front 16

Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974

Back 16

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.

Front 17

Congressional Budget Office

Back 17

A counterweight to the president’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Advises Congress on the probable consequences of budget decisions and forecasts revenues.

Front 18

Budget Resolution

Back 18

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

Front 19

Reconciliation

Back 19

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

Front 20

Authorization Bill

Back 20

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

Front 21

Appropriations Bill

Back 21

An act of Congress that actually funds programs within limits established by authorization bills.

Front 22

Continuing Resolution

Back 22

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