Chapter 14 Key Terms

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Budget

Back 1

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

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Deficit

Back 2

an excess of federal expenditures over federal revenues.

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Income tax

Back 3

shares of individual wages and corporate revenues collected by the government. The Sixteenth Amendment explicitly authorized Congress to levy a tax on income.

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Sixteenth Amendment

Back 4

the Constitutional Amendment adopted in 1913, that explicitly permitted Congress to levy an income tax.

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federal debt

Back 5

all the money borrowed by the federal government over the years and still outstanding. Today, the federal debt is more than 8 trillion dollars.

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tax expenditures

Back 6

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

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Social Security Act

Back 7

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.

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Medicare

Back 8

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 doctors’ fees and other health expenses. I

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ncrementalism

Back 9

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 Wildabsky, most of the budget is the product of previous decisions.

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uncontrollable expenditures

Back 10

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.

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Entitlements

Back 11

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

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House Ways and Means Committee

Back 12

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.

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Senate Finance Committee

Back 13

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 14

Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974

Back 14

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.

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Congressional Budget Office (CBO) -

Back 15

advises Congress on the probable consequences of its decisions, forecasts revenues, and is a counterweight to the President’s OMB (Office of Management and Budget).

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budget resolution

Back 16

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

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Reconciliation

Back 17

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

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authorization bill

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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.

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Continuing resolution

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

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Gramm-Rudman-Hollings (Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 )

Back 20

mandated maximum allowable deficit levels for each year until 1993. When the budget was supposed to be in balance. If Congress failed to meet the deficit goals, automatic across-the-board spending cuts called sequestrations would be ordered by the President.