The Real Budget and the Real Budget Deficit

Publication Date: August 2003

Publisher: Center for Economic and Policy Research

Author(s): Dean Baker; David Rosnick

Research Area: Banking and finance

Keywords: National debt; Federal budget; Tax revenues

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

This paper recommends an alternative measure of the federal budget and the budget deficit – a core budget – which would pull out programs financed by their own stream of revenue (like Social Security and Medicare) and focus only on the portion financed by general revenue (primarily personal and corporate income taxes).