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Essay On The Federal Budget

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A couple of large concerns always arise when discussing politics: the state of the Union, what the president is currently doing, and a few other topics. No topic, however, is as talked about in major concern than the federal budget. As tax payers, the American people always wishes to know where their tax dollars are going. The problem is that very few people actually know who sets the federal budget, and how much power this branch of government really has.
The governmental branch that controls the federal budget is the legislative branch, also known as Congress. An instance when Congress really stretched its muscles in terms of the federal budget was the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974. This bill permitted Congress …show more content…

This establishes the total targets of five budget key areas: authority, outlays, revenues, surplus or deficit, and public debt. The resolution also sets a budget authority and outlay targets of each of the 21 spending categories. Finally, the committee prepares guidelines in the annual budget resolution for cutting programs to meet spending targets. A few other key responsibilities that the HBC may receive is to sometimes include reconciliation instructions that instruct committees to develop legislation that will change current revenue or direct spending laws to conform with policies established in the budget resolution, and to make summary budget scorekeeping reports in order to measure the budgetary effects of pending and enacted legislation against the levels recommended in the budget resolution.
Another budget committee is the Senate Budget Committee, or SBC. The SBC’s prime responsibilities is very much like the House Budget Committee’s, where the SBC must draft budget plans for Congress and monitor and enforce rules surrounding spending, revenue, and the federal budget. The only difference between the HBC and SBC is their resolution to the budget, which is jointly agreed upon through a conference committee and becomes the budget resolution, or federal budget. This budget does not become a new law of the US as the president does not sign

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