Vocabulary List 13:

Question 1

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

Answer 1

budget

Question 2

Define: An excess of federal expenditures over
federal revenues

Answer 2

deficit

Question 3

Define: Government spending

Answer 3

expenditures

Question 4

Define: The financial resources of the government

Answer 4

revenues

Question 5

Define: Shares of individual wages and corporate revenues collected by
the government

Answer 5

income tax

Question 6

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

Answer 6

sixteenth amendment

Question 7

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

Answer 7

national debt

Question 8

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

Answer 8

tax expenditures

Question 9

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

Answer 9

Social Security Act

Question 10

Define: 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.

Answer 10

medicare

Question 11

Define: 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)

Answer 11

incrementalism

Question 12

Define: 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

Answer 12

uncontrollable expenditures

Question 13

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

Answer 13

entitlements

Question 14

Define: 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

Answer 14

House Ways and Means Committee

Question 15

Define: 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

Answer 15

Senate Finance Committee

Question 16

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

Answer 16

Congressional Budget Office

Question 17

Define: A 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

Define: A congressional process through which program authorizations are
revised to achieve required savings

Answer 18

reconciliation

Question 19

Define: An act of Congress that establishes, continues, or changes a discretionary government program or an entitlement

Answer 19

authorization bill

Question 20

Define: An act of Congress that actually funds programs within limits established by
authorization bills

Answer 20

appropriate bill

Question 21

Define: 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