Congress and Fiscal Politics

What happens if the US government defaults on the federal debt?

THE CBO REPORT IS COMING OUT AT THIS VERY HOUR

Constitutional Provisions

All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other Bills.”
— U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 7, clause 1

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

-- U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 8, clause 12

“No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.”
— U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 9, clause 7

What follows would baffle a Martian.

Part 1: Authorization

Part 2: Appropriation

• Budget Authority
• Outlay
• Continuing resolutions
• The omnibus -- what is it?  Trump had to sign it to find out what was in it.  And the Fox reaction freaked him out.

Part 3:  "The Budget Process" and key documents:

• The president's budget
• CBO reports

Part 4:  Mandatory and Discretionary Spending

Part 5:  Revenue Bills

Part 6:  The Debt Ceiling


Revenues -- Where the money comes from:

The tax system is a lot more progressive than most people realize:  

Tax expenditures

Outlays -- Where the money goes:

Budget tables:  function, subfunction, agency

No, we cannot balance the budget by catching Social Security fraud: only 13 people aged 112 or older are getting checks.

Debt, last year's projection: