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| 6356957350 | Budget | A policy document allocating burdens and benefits. | 0 | |
| 6356965801 | Deficit | An excess of federal expenditures over federal revenues. | 1 | |
| 6356974280 | Expenditures | Government spending. | 2 | |
| 6356981271 | Revenues | The financial resources of the government. | 3 | |
| 6356983130 | Income Tax | Shares of individual wages and corporate revenues collected by the government. | 4 | |
| 6357032596 | Sixteenth Amendment | The constitutional amendment adopted in 1913 that explicitly permitted Congress to levy an income tax. | 5 | |
| 6357042619 | Federal Debt | All the money borrowed by the federal government over the years and still outstanding. | 6 | |
| 6357047916 | Tax Expenditures | Revenue losses that result from special exemptions, exclusions, or deductions allowed by federal tax law. | 7 | |
| 6357054640 | Social Security Act | A 1935 law intended to provide a minimal level of sustenance to older Americans and thus save them from poverty. | 8 | |
| 6357061646 | Medicare | 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. | 9 | |
| 6357071317 | Incrementalism | A description of the budget process where the best predictor of this year's budget is last year's budget, plus a little more. | 10 | |
| 6357076462 | Uncontrollable Expenditures | 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. | 11 | |
| 6357118934 | Entitlements | Policies for which Congress has obligated itself to pay X level of benefits to Y number of recipients. | 12 | |
| 6357129656 | House Ways and Means Committee | The House of Representative committee that, along with the Senate Finance Committee, writes the tax codes, subject to the approval of Congress as a whole. | 13 | |
| 6357140225 | 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. | 14 | |
| 6357145465 | Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 | An act designed to reform the congressional budgetary process, including by forcing Congress to look at the budget as a whole. | 15 | |
| 6357150986 | Congressional Budget Office | Advises Congress on the probable consequences of its decisions, forecasts revenues, and is a counterweight to the president's Office of Management and Budget. | 16 | |
| 6357158306 | Budget Resolution | A resolution binding Congress to a total expenditure level, supposedly the bottom line of all federal spending for all programs. | 17 | |
| 6357160967 | Reconciliation | A congressional process through which program authorizations are revised to achieve required savings. | 18 | |
| 6357182598 | Authorization Bill | An act of Congress that establishes, continues, or changes a discretionary government program or an entitlement. | 19 | |
| 6357186859 | Appropriations Bill | An act of Congress that actually funds programs within limits established by authorization bills. | 20 | |
| 6357214455 | Continuing Resolutions | When Congress cannot reach agreement and pass appropriations bills, these allow agencies to spend at the level of the previous year. | 21 |
