Background: Taxes and the Budget

This section explains various issues related to the federal budget such as trust funds, on- and off-budget accounts, and generational accounting.

• What do short-term budget scenarios look like?
• What do long-term budget scenarios look like?
• How accurate are short-run and long-run budget scenarios?
• How much spending is uncontrollable?
• What is generational accounting?
• What are extenders?
• What does it mean for a government program to be off-budget?
• Are the Social Security trust funds real?