Taxes
What is the name of the tax applied to vices (e.g. smoking, alcohol gambling) designed to collect revenue and curb bad behaviors
sin tax
This belief states that those who stand to gain from government goods and services should pay proportionally more.
Benefit Principle
What is the biggest economic challenge facing the Biden administration?
Inflation
Spending for federal programs that must receive annual authorization from Congress
Discretionary Spending
What is a budget deficit?
What is the acronym for the withholding on a paycheck that covers medicare and social security?
FICA
This type of tax imposes the same percentage rate of taxation on everyone.
Proportional Tax
The U.S. announced an agreement with which country to lower emissions through the 2020s?
China
Why is a balanced budget amendment a bad idea in Mr. Benson's opinion?
Because the government would not have the ability to respond to an emergency like a war or a pandemic.
What is a budget surplus?
When revenues > expenses
What is the name of the tax that is added at each step of the production process
Value Added Tax or VAT
This belief states that people should pay according to how much they are capable of contributing, regardless of what they would receive.
Ability to Pay Principle
Within $200 Billion, how big was the infrastructure bill that was just signed into law?
This term originated in the late 1800s to describe spending to win favor with voters
Pork (barrel) spending
Within $1 Trillion, what is the current national debt?
$29 Trillion
Property Tax
This tax imposes a higher % of taxation on lower incomes than on higher ones.
Regressive Tax
This is the primary driver of cost-push inflation right now
Supply-chain issues
Name two programs that are part of mandatory spending
Medicare
Medicaid
Social Security
In which decade did we experience the last budget surplus?
The 90s
What are the three criteria that taxes must meet?
Equity
Efficiency
Simplicity
Accelerated depreciation and the investment tax credit were designed to lower taxes on which group?
Corporations
What's the name given to the huge exodus of workers quitting their jobs in record numbers?
The Great Resignation
When federal employees leave the Security and Exchange Commission (the government organization overseeing Wall Street) for higher pay working for Wall Street investment banks, this is an example of what two competing segments of the economy?
Private Sector vs. Public Sector
What typically happens when we start running budget surpluses?
Taxes are cut which reduces revenues and leads to budget deficits