Chapter 14 Flashcards
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apgoporuxton on September 25, 2011
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Currently only Chapter 14 key terms...will add Chapter 12 by Wednesday
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24 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 revenues | the financial resources of the federal government. The individual income tax and Social Security tax are two major sources of revenue. |
| IRS (Internal Revenue Service) | the office established to collect federal income taxes, investigate violations of the tax laws, and prosecute tax criminals. |
| uncontrollable expenditures | Expenditures that are determined by how many eligible beneficiaries there are for some particular program. According to Lance LeLoup, an expenditure is classified as uncontrollable "If it is mandated under current law or by a previous obligation." ¾ of federal budget is uncontrollable. |
| expenditures | Federal spending or revenues. Major areas of such spending and the military |
| federal debt | all the money borrowed by the federal government over the years and still outstanding. Today the federal debt is about $5.5 trillion |
| deficit | an excess of federal expenditures over federal revenues. |
| budget resolution | a resolution binding Congress to a total expenditure level, supposedly the bottom line of all federal spending for all programs |
| income taxes | Shares of individual wages and corporate revenues collected by the government. |
| tax expenditures | Defined by the 1974 Budget Act as "revenue losses attributable to provisions of the federal tax laws which allow a special exemption, exclusion, or deduction." |
| entitlement programs | Policies for which expenditures are uncontrollable because Congress has in effect obligated itself to pay X level of benefits to Y number or recipients. |
| reconciliation | A congressional process through which program authorizations are revised to achieve required savings. It usually also includes tax or other revenue adjustments. |
| contenting resolutions | When Congress cannot reach agreement and pass appropriations bills, these resolutions allow agencies to spend at the level of the previous year. |
| incrementalism | the belief that the best predictor of this year's budget is last year's budget, plus a little bit more (an increment). |
| Medicare | a program added to the SSA in 1965 that provides hospitalization insurance for the elderly and permits older Americans to purchase inexpensive coverage for doctor fees and other expenses. |
| appropriations bill | An act of Congress that actually funds programs within limits established by authorization bills. Appropriations usually cover one year. |
| 16th amendment | the constitutional amendment adopted in 1915 that explicitly permitted Congress to levy an income tax. |
| House Ways and Means Committee | The HoR committee that, along with Senate Financial Committee, writes the tax codes, subject to the approval of Congress as a whole. |
| authorization bill | 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. |
| Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 | An act designed to reform the congressional budgetary process. Its 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. |
| Congressional Budget Office (CBO) | a counterweight to the president's Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The CBO advises Congress on the probable consequences of budget decisions and forecast revenues. |
| Senate Finance Committee | 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. |
| budget | a policy document allocating burdens (taxes) and benefits (expenditures). |
| Social Security Act | a 1935 law passed during the Great Depression that was intended to provide a minimal level of sustenance to older Americans and thus save them from poverty. |
| Gramm-Rudman-Hollings | Named for its sponsors and also known as the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Act, legislation mandating maximum allowable deficit levels each year until 1991, when the budget was to be balanced. in 1987, the balanced budget year was shifted to 1993, but the Act was abandoned in 1991. |
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