Budget

Question 1

Budget

Answer 1

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

Question 2

Deficit

Answer 2

An excess of federal expenditures over federal revenues how government has overspent.

Question 3

Expenditures

Answer 3

Government spending. Major areas of federal spending are social services and national defense.

Question 4

Revenues

Answer 4

The financial resources of the government. The individual income tax and Social Security tax are two major sources of the federal government’s revenue.

Question 5

Income Tax

Answer 5

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

Question 6

Sixteenth Amendment

Answer 6

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

Question 7

National Debt

Answer 7

All the money borrowed by the federal government over the years and still outstanding. Today the national debt is about $17.5 trillion.

Question 8

Tax Expenditures

Answer 8

Revenue losses that result from special exemptions, exclusions, or deductions allowed by federal tax law.

Question 9

Social Security Act

Answer 9

A 1935 law intended to provide a minimal level of sustenance to older Americans and thus save them from poverty.

Question 10

Medicare

Answer 10

A program added to the Social Security system in 1965 that provides health insurance for the elderly, covering hospitalization, doctor fees, and other health expenses.

Question 11

Incrementalism

Answer 11

A description of the budget process in which 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.”

Question 12

Uncontrollable Expenditures

Answer 12

Expenditures that are determined by how many eligible beneficiaries there are for a program or by previous obligations of the government and that Congress therefore cannot easily control.

Question 13

Entitlements

Answer 13

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

Question 14

House Ways and Means

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Senate Finance Committee

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Congressional Budget Office

Answer 16

Advises Congress on the probable consequences of its decisions, forecasts revenues, and is a counterweight to the president’s Office of management and Budget.

Question 17

Budget Resolution

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Reconciliation

Answer 18

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

Question 19

Authorization Bill

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

Appropriations Bill

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Continuing Resolutions

Answer 21

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

Question 22

GAO is

Answer 22

Government countability office is congresses eyes and ears with implementing budget

Question 23

When does the president have to submit his budget and when does the new fisical year begin

Answer 23

Pres. First Monday in February

Physical year October 1

Question 24

What is the biggest piece of the budget pie

Answer 24

Income security expenditures

Question 25

examples of tax expenditures

Answer 25

Donating to charity
mortgage claims property taxes
business items