Taxing And Spending Flashcards
(22 cards)
A policy document allocating burdens (taxes) and benefits (expenditures)
Budget
And excess of federal expenditures over federal revenues
Deficit
Government spending. Major areas of federal spending our social services and national defense.
Expenditures
The financial resources of the government. The individual income tax and Social Security tax are two major sources of the federal governments revenue
Revenues
Shares of individual wages and corporate revenues collected by the government. The 16th amendment explicitly authorized Congress to levy a tax on income.
Income tax
The constitutional amendment adopted in 1913 that explicitly permitted Congress to levy and income tax.
16th amendment
All the money borrowed by the federal government over the years and still outstanding. Today the federal that is about 15 trillion
Federal debt
Revenue losses that result from special exceptions exclusions or deductions allowed by federal tax law.
Tax expenditures
A 1935 law intended to provide a minimal level of sustainment’s two older Americans in this save them from poverty
Social security act
A program added to the Social Security system and 1965 that provides health insurance for the elderly covering hospitalization Dr. fees and other health expenses
Medicare
A description of the budget process where the best predictor of the usage it is last year’s budget plus a little bit more. According to Erin Willdavisky, “most of the budget is a product of previous decisions”
Incrementalism
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
Uncontrollable expenditures
Policies for which congress has obligated itself to pay X level of benefits to Y number of recipients.
Entitlements
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.
House ways and means committee
The senate committee that, along with the House of ways and means committee writes the tax codes subject to the approval of congress as a whole
Senate finance committee
An act designed to reform the congressional budgetary process, including by forcing congress to look at the budget as a whole. It was intended to make congress less dependent on the presidents budget and better able to set and meet its own budgetary goals.
Congressional budget and impoundment control act of 1974
Advises congress on the probable consequences of its decisions, forecasts, revenues, and is a counter-weight to the presidents office of management and budget
Congressional budget office
A resolution binding congress to a total expenditure level, supposedly the bottom line of all federal spending for the government
Budget resolution
A congressional process through which program authorizations are revised to achieve required savings. It usually also includes tax or other revenue adjustments
Reconciliation
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.
Authorization bill
An act of congress that actually funds programs within limits established by authorization bills. Appropriations usually cover one year
Appropriation bill
When congress cannot reach agreement and pass appropriations bills, these resolutions allow agencies to spend at the level of the previous year
Continuing resolution
