Chapter 14 - The Politics of Taxing and Spending Flashcards
An excess of federal expenditures over federal revenues
Deficit
A policy document allocating burdens (taxes) and benefits (expenditures)
Budget
Federal spending of revenues. Major areas of spending are social services and the military
Expenditures
Financial resources of the federal government. The individual income tax and social security tax are the 2 major sources of revenue
Revenues
Shares of individual wages and corporate revenues collected by the government
Income tax
Adopted in 1913 that explicitly permitted Congress to levy and income tax
Sixteenth Amendment
All the money borrowed by the federal government over the years and still outstanding
Federal debt
Revenue losses that result from special exemptions, exclusions, or deductions on federal tax law
Tax expenditures
A 1935 law passed during the Great Depression that was intended to provide a minimal level of sustenance to older Americans and thus save the from poverty
Social Security Act
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
Medicare
The belief that the best predictor of this year’s budget is last year’s budget plus a little bit more
Incrementalism
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
Uncontrollable expenditures
Policies for which Congress has obligated itself to pay X level of benefits to Y number of recipients
Entitlements
Writes the tax codes, subject to the approval of Congress as a whole, along with the Senate Finance Committee
House Ways and Means Committee
Writes tax codes, subject to the approval of Congress as a whole, along with the House Ways and Means Committee
Senate Finance Committee
An act designed to reform congressional budgetary process. It’s 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 it established
Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974
Advises Congress on the probable consequences of it’s decisions, forecasts revenues, and is a counterweight to the presidents OMB
Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
Resolution binding Congress to a total expenditure level, supposedly the bottom line of all federal spending for all programs
Budget resolution
A process through which program authorizations are revised to achieve acquired savings. It usually also includes tax or other revenue adjustments.
Reconciliation
An act of Congress that establishes a discretionary government program or an entitlement. It specifies program goals and maximum expenditures for discretionary programs
Authorization bill
An act of Congress that actually funds programs within limits established by authorization bills. They usually cover 1 year
Appropriations bill
When Congress cannot reach agreement and pass appropriations bills, these resolutions allow agencies to spend at the level of the previous year
Continuing resolutions
