Chapter 14 - The Politics of Taxing and Spending

Question 0

An excess of federal expenditures over federal revenues

Answer 0

Deficit

Question 1

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

Answer 1

Budget

Question 2

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

Answer 2

Expenditures

Question 3

Financial resources of the federal government. The individual income tax and social security tax are the 2 major sources of revenue

Answer 3

Revenues

Question 4

Shares of individual wages and corporate revenues collected by the government

Answer 4

Income tax

Question 5

Adopted in 1913 that explicitly permitted Congress to levy and income tax

Answer 5

Sixteenth Amendment

Question 6

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

Answer 6

Federal debt

Question 7

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

Answer 7

Tax expenditures

Question 8

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

Answer 8

Social Security Act

Question 9

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

Answer 9

Medicare

Question 10

The belief that the best predictor of this year’s budget is last year’s budget plus a little bit more

Answer 10

Incrementalism

Question 11

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

Answer 11

Uncontrollable expenditures

Question 12

Policies for which Congress has obligated itself to pay X level of benefits to Y number of recipients

Answer 12

Entitlements

Question 13

Writes the tax codes, subject to the approval of Congress as a whole, along with the Senate Finance Committee

Answer 13

House Ways and Means Committee

Question 14

Writes tax codes, subject to the approval of Congress as a whole, along with the House Ways and Means Committee

Answer 14

Senate Finance Committee

Question 15

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

Answer 15

Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974

Question 16

Advises Congress on the probable consequences of it’s decisions, forecasts revenues, and is a counterweight to the presidents OMB

Answer 16

Congressional Budget Office (CBO)

Question 17

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

Answer 17

Budget resolution

Question 18

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

Answer 18

Reconciliation

Question 19

An act of Congress that establishes a discretionary government program or an entitlement. It specifies program goals and maximum expenditures for discretionary programs

Answer 19

Authorization bill

Question 20

An act of Congress that actually funds programs within limits established by authorization bills. They usually cover 1 year

Answer 20

Appropriations bill

Question 21

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

Answer 21

Continuing resolutions