AP Government Chapter 14 Vocabulary Words

161399685	budget	A policy document allocating burdens (taxes) and benefits (expenditures)
161399686	deficit	An excess of federal expenditures over federal revenues
161399687	expenditures	Government spending of revenues. Major areas of federal spending are social services and national defense.
161399688	revenues	The financial resources of the government. The individual income tax and Social Security tax are two major sources of the federal government's revenue
161399689	income tax	Share of individual wages and corporate revenues collected by the government. The Sixteenth Amendment explicitly authorized Congress to levy a tax on income
161399690	Sixteenth Amendment	The constitutional amendment adopted in 1913 that explicitly permitted Congress to levy an income tax
161399691	federal debt	All the money borrowed by the federal government over the years and still outstanding. Today the federal debt is more than $9 trillion
161399692	tax expenditures	Revenue losses that result from special exemptions, exclusions, or deductions on federal tax law
161399693	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
161399694	Medicare	A program added to the Social Security system in 1965 that provides hospitalization insurance for the elderly and permits older Americans to purchase inexpensive coverage for doctor fees and other health expenses
161399695	incrementalism	A description of the budget process where the best predictor of this year's budget is last year's budget, plus a little but more (an increment)
161399696	uncontrollable expenditures	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 of the government
161399697	entitlements	Policies for which Congress has obligated itself to pay X level of benefits to Y numbers of recipients. Social Security benefits are an example
161403541	House Ways and Means Committee	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
161403542	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
161403543	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
161403544	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.
161403545	budget resolution	A resolution binding Congress to a total expenditure level, supposedly the bottom line of all federal spending for all programs
161403546	reconciliation	A congressional process through which programs authorizations are revised to achieve required savings. It usually includes tax or other revenue adjustments.
161403547	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.
161403548	appropriations bill	An act of Congress that actually funds programs within limits established by authorization bills. Appropriations usually cover one year.
161403549	continuing resolutions	When Congress cannot reach agreement and pass appropriations bills, these resolutions allow agencies to spend at the level of the previous year.