Lexicon of Common Budget Words And Phrases

Accountability.

Assumptions. (See Overly Optimistic)

Balanced. Bipartisan. Best Practices.  Benchmark.

Business (Often preceded by Struggling and Small or both and followed by the phrase As Usual) 

Coalescing. Categorical. Compromise. Complicated. Concerns. 

Cuts. (Commonly used in conjunction with Spending but also Draconian and Difficult.)

Chronic (Used in conjunction with the phrase Budget Problems or Deficit.)

Credits (Used in conjunction with Tax)

Cynical (See Honest)

Draconian. Difficult. Deferral. Debt. Debate.

Expenditures. Economy. Elimination.

Fungible. Forecast.

Fiscal House. (A place that apparently forever requires being put in order)

and)

Gimmicks (Defined differently by Republicans and Democrats)

Honest (Defined differently by Republicans and Democrats.)

Hold Hostage

Jobs. Job Creation. (Anti- is a common assessment by Republicans of Democratic policies)

Job Killer (Used, primarily by Republicans, to describe Legislation, usually introduced by Democrats)

Kicking the Can Down the Road.

Kabuki (Preceded by Budget)

Leverage. Living Within Our Means.

Long-term (Often used in conjunction with Investment, sometimes, although less credibly, with Planning)

Mandates. 

Ongoing. Out Years.

On The Backs of…  (Insert interest group upon whom budget is balanced.)

Overly Optimistic (Commonly and all too often correctly used in conjunction with Projections, Estimates, Assumptions and Expectations.)

Projections. Partisan. Programmatic. Pensions. Proposition 98. Private Sector. Priorities. 

Politics (Frequently used in conjunction with Playing or Partisan)

Painful (Used in conjunction with Cuts, primarily by Democrats.)

Reversion. Rebenching. Retrenching. Revision. Realignment. Reform. Reserve. Restorations. Reductions.

Realistic (Commonly although usually mistakenly used in conjunction with Projections, Estimates, Assumptions and Expectations.)

Revenue (Sometimes sandwiched between Irresponsible and Assumptions.)

Rhetoric (See Honest and Cynical.)

Road to Recovery

Taxes (Used in conjunction with any number of words both positively and pejoratively.)

Shortfall. Stopgap. Smoke and Mirrors. Statutory.

Spending (Used in conjunction with Cuts by Democrats and Runaway by Republicans.) 

Structural (Used in conjunction with Deficit) 

Trigger. Transperancy.

Tough (Used in conjunction with Choices)

Temporary (Used by Democrats primarily in conjunction with Tax Increases)

Unemployment

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