Abbreviations, Conventions, and Definitions, U.S. Federal Budget (fb-7.html)

Revised 9/16/99 -- See fb-changes.html for what's new and a revision history.
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Abbreviations, Conventions, and Definitions Quick List (3)

===== CONVENTIONS (click here for more details on these items)  =====

((  ))
page 68 {92}
7 underlines ______
Simple numbers in ()'s are all section numbers
BMark: blah blah - a "Bookmark" rather than a section header

===== ABBREVIATIONS (click here for more details)  =====

CY - Calendar Year
E&B0199.PDF - CBO - Economic and Budget Outlook, January 1999. 
FICA - Federal Insurance Contributions Act (payroll taxes for SS and Medicare) ...
FY - Fiscal Year
JAL - James Albert Larson, principle author ...
non - "numbered note" 
OASDI - synonymous with Social Security ...
SIT Obligations - Special Issue Treasury Obligations ...
SMI99 - March 1999 SMI (Medicare Part B) Trustees Report
SS - Social Security
SSA - Social Security Administration
SSTF - Social Security Trust Fund
TR99 - March 1999 Social Security Trustees Report

===== DEFINITIONS (click here for more details) =====

Current Dollars, Nominal Dollars; Constant Dollars, Inflation-Adjusted Dollars
General fund of the Treasury
General Taxpayer
General Taxes
On - Budget Array
Off - Budget Array
Payroll Taxes
Qualified Unified Budget Surplus
Special Issue Treasury Obligations
Unified Budget
Unqualified Unified Budget Surplus

Abbreviations, Conventions, and Definitions (4)

Conventions (5)

* "(( ))" - double parenthesis is a note to myself.

* "page 68 {92}" - This is an example of a cited page number for a PDF file. The first page number, 68, is the actual page number written on the page of the report. The second number, in {}'s, 92, is the Adobe Acrobat Reader page number. They differ because Acrobat Reader counts the first physical page as page 1. Whereas most reports have their first few pages numbered like i, ii, etc. before finally starting to number the pages 1, 2, 3 etc.

* "7 underlines: _______" - a note to myself to fill in the information.

* Simple numbers in ()'s are all section numbers. E.g. (999) marks section non999. See below on non numbers.

* BMark: blah blah -- short for a book-mark. Indicates a topic book-marked by a note, if not already made into a heading.  

Abbreviations (6)

* E&B0199.PDF - CBO, The Economic and Budget Outlook: Fiscal Years 2000-2009, January 1999. Frequently referred to as E&B0199.PDF

* FICA - Federal Insurance Contributions Act: Provision authorizing taxes on the wages of employed persons to provide Retirement, Survivors, and Disability Insurance, and for Hospital Insurance. The tax is paid in equal amounts by workers and their employers. (So "FICA taxes" means Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes).

* JAL - James Albert Larson, the primary author of this web site.

* non, as in e.g. non999 - Numbered NOte. Most notes, sections, or bookmarks are book-marked with a section number or note number like "non999". For the convenience of text version users, or when a non-number is mentioned without a link, one can find it by searching for (999), i.e. the section number in parentheses, and with no spaces between the parentheses and the number. It is also for the convenience of people reading a printed version -- to know what section is being referred to.

Currently, the non-numbers are in order. However, as sections are inserted, deleted, or rearrangements made, the non-numbers will no longer be in order. Any section moved elsewhere will keep their old non-number. This is for continuity of reference. See the fb-index.html section on navigational aids and non-numbers for more information

* OASDI - Old-Age and Survivors and Disability Insurance -- synonymous with Social Security, as Social Security consists of Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) and Disability Insurance (DI). (OASDI is a combination of OASI and DI). See SSTF below for more on the associated trust funds.

* SIT Obligations - Special Issue Treasury Obligations. These are non-marketable Treasury certificates and bonds that are issued exclusively to the trust funds. Many trust funds take in more than they spend, they then loan the difference to the Treasury general fund. In exchange for the loan, the Treasury general fund gives a SIT Obligation to the trust fund. A SIT Obligation is an IOU that says in effect, "I, the Treasury general fund, owe you, the _____ trust fund, the amount of _____ dollars". SIT Obligations are called many different things in different government reports, such as "Treasury Special Issues", "Special Treasury Obligations", etc. What seems to be common, however is the word "Special". If you see the word "Special" with regards to Treasury securities, bonds, etc., they are talking about what I call SIT Obligations. SIT Obligations are never sold to the public. They are for exclusive use of the trust funds.

* SMI99 - The SMI Trustees March 30, 1999 Report. SMI, Supplemental Medical Insurance, is also called Medicare Part B.

* SS - Social Security. Social Security is synonymous with OASDI.

* SSA - Social Security Administration

* SSTF - Social Security Trust Fund - This is a term of convenience that I use. What I call the social security trust fund is really made up of two funds: the OASI (Old-Age And Survivors Insurance) fund and the DI (Disability Insurance) fund. These are funds maintained by the Treasury Department. SSA literature refers to the combination of the two funds as the "OASDI" funds. They are also often referred to as the social security trust funds (lower case and plural).

* TR99 - The Social Security Trustees March 30, 1999 Report. Officially titled "1999 Annual Report Of The Board Of Trustees Of The Federal Old-Age And Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance Trust Funds"  

Definitions (see also abbreviations above) (7)

* Current Dollars, Nominal Dollars; Constant Dollars, Inflation-Adjusted Dollars Explanation of which is what (non254)

* General fund of the Treasury - Funds held by the Treasury of the United States, other than receipts collected for a specific purpose (such as Social Security) and maintained in a separate account for that purpose.

* General Taxpayer - taxpayer paying general taxes.

* General Taxes (or general revenues) - taxes not earmarked for a specific purpose. For purposes of this web site, general taxes are all taxes other than payroll taxes. (Payroll taxes are earmarked for Social Security and Medicare). General taxes are primarily individual income taxes and corporate income taxes.

* On - Budget Array - This is the budget excluding SS taxes and expenditures, and excluding postal service operations. It does, however, include as an expenditure, the payment of interest to the SSTF. (The terms unified budget, on-budget array, and off-budget array, are the terms used by a Congressional Research Service report ).

* Off - Budget Array - The receipts and the expenditures of the Social Security system and the postal service. It includes as income the payment of interest by the general fund to the SSTF.

* Payroll taxes - A tax levied on the gross wages of workers. Currently, payroll taxes are earmarked for Social Security and Medicare.

* Qualified Unified Budget Surplus - The Unified budget is in surplus, thanks to the SS surplus. The "on - budget array" is in deficit.

* Special Issue Treasury Obligations - Non-marketable securities issued exclusively to the trust funds. See SIT Obligations above in the Abbreviations section (non6) for more details.

* Unified Budget - includes SS and postal service operations. This is the budget usually referred to by the media. Its the combination of the "on-budget array" and the "off-budget array". See also section non152 and particulary section non153 for more on these budget terms.

* Unqualified Unified Budget Surplus - All components of the budget are in surplus: the off-budget array, the on-budget array, and the unified budget.