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GOVT- Chapter 15
The Congress, the President, and the Budget: The Politics of Taxing and Spending
12
Political Studies
Undergraduate 1
03/02/2009

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Term
budget
Definition
a policy document allocating burdens (taxes) and benefits (expenditures).
Term
expenditures
Definition
government spending of revenues. Major areas of federal spending are social services and national defense
Term
revenues
Definition
the financial resources of government. the individual income tax and Social Security tax are two major sources of the federal government's "word"
Term
income tax
Definition
shares of individual wages and corporate revenues collected by the government. the 16th amendment explicitly authorized Congress to levy an "word"
Term
16th Amendment
Definition
the constitutional amendment adopted in 1915 that explicitly permitted Congress to levy an income tax
Term
federal debt
Definition
all the money borrowed by the federal government over the years and still outstanding. Today the "word" is more than $9 trillion
Term
tax expenditures
Definition
revenue losses that result from special exemptions, exclusions, or deductions in federal tax law
Term
Social Security Act
Definition
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
Term
Medicare
Definition
a program added to the Social Security system in 1965 that proves hospitalization insurance for the elderly and permits older Americans to purchase inexpensive coverage for doctor fees and other health expenses
Term
incrementalism
Definition
a description of the budgetary process where the best predictor of this year's budget is last year's budget plus a little bit more (an increment)
Term
uncontrollable expenditures
Definition
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 by the government
Term
entitlements
Definition
policies for which Congress has obligated itself to pay X level of benefits to Y number of recipients. Social Security benefits is an example
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