Balanced Budget Act of 1997. Legislation designed to balance the unified budget by 2002 primarily by severely reducing the growth of Medicare spending and extending the limits on discretionary spending.
Baby Boomers. Cohort of Americans born between 1946 and 1964; 76 million strong, they represent the longest sustained population growth in U.S. history.
Benchmarking. Identifying measures against which an organization's progress can be compared.
Benefit Accrual. Increment to future retirement benefits resulting from an additional year of employment.
Block Grant. Grants of a fixed size that are given to states or local governments for broad purposes and that have fewer strings (or requirements) than do categorical grants.
Bracket Creep. The increased burden attributable to income gains driven by inflation. Under a progressive tax system, individuals can be pushed into higher marginal tax brackets if their nominal incomes increase over time. Since the early 1980s, tax schedules have been indexed for inflation so that general price increases would not cause bracket creep. Nevertheless, some analysts contend that real income growth causes a similar phenomenon.
Budget Scoring. The process of estimating the budgetary effects of pending and enacted legislation and comparing them to limits set in the budget resolution or legislation.
