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| A policy document allocating burdens (taxes) and benefits (expenditures). |
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| An excess of federal expenditures over federal revenues. |
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| Federal spending of revenues. Major areas of such spending are social services and the military. |
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| The financial resources of the federal government. The individual income tax and Social Security tax are two major sources of revenue. |
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| Shares of individual wages and corporate revenues collected by the government. The first income tax was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1895, but the 16th Amendment explicitly authorized Congress to levy a tax on income. |
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| The constitutional amendment adopted in 1915 that explicitly permitted Congress to levy an income tax |
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| All the money borrowed by the federal government over the years and still outstanding. Today the federal debt is over $5 trillion. |
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| 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." Tax expenditures represent the difference between what the government actually collects in taxes and what it would have collected without special exemptions. |
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| 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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| 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. |
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| 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." |
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| Uncontrollable Expenditures |
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| Expenditures that are determined by how many eligible beneficiaries there are for some particular program. According to Lance LeLoup, and expenditure is classified as uncontrollable "if it is mandated under current law or by a previous obligation." Three-Fourths of the federal budget is uncontrollable. Congress can change uncontrollable expenditures only by changing a law or existing benefit levels. |
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| 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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| The House Ways and Means Committee |
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| Committee that, along with the Senate Finance Committee, writes tax codes, subject to the approval of Congress as a whole. |
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| Writes tax codes but also deals with Medicare. |
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| Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 |
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| An act designed to reform the congressional budgetary process. Its supporters hoped that it would also make Congress less dependant on the president’s budget and better able to set and meet its own budgetary goals. |
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| Congressional Budget Office |
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| Advises congress on the probable consequences of its budget decisions, forecasts revenues, and is a counterweight to the president’s OMB |
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| A resolution binding Congress to a total expenditure level, supposedly the bottom line of all federal spending for all programs. |
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| 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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| An act of Congress that establishes, continues, or changes discretionary government program or an entitlement. It specifies program goals and maximum expenditures for discretionary programs. |
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| An act of congress that actually funds programs within limits established by authorizations usually cover one year. |
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| When Congress cannot reach agreement and pass appropriations bills, these resolutions allow agencies to spend at the level of the previous year. |
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