Power of the Purse

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
• Automatic CR?
• Pro
• Con
• The 2018 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 and RECONCILIATION (Straus ch. 5)

Part 6:  What happens if the US government defaults on the federal debt?


Revenues -- Where the money comes from:

The tax system is more progressive than most people realize (esp. slide 17):  

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.

Deficit

Debt