Supporting Materials

A nation’s budget is the forecast by a government of its expenditures and revenues for a specific period of time. The U.S. has a relatively open budget, which is presented as a whole and subjected to congressional scrutiny. In contrast, the government of the United Kingdom presents the budget in different documents, at different times and, although subjected to parliament scrutiny, it is rarely changed.

The US budget is presented as a coherent whole for lengthy consideration by Congress, during which it is often substantially revised. This joint consideration of revenue and expenditure is also common in most European countries. In the United States of America nearly all of the federal government's revenues come from taxes. Each year, Congress establishes the federal budget. Then it passes a revised budget. Since 1974, income security has been the largest category of federal spending. Income security includes retirement and disability payments for federal employees, unemployment insurance, and social security payments to retired and handicapped workers. Defense spending makes up the second largest category. Interest payments on the national debt constitute the third largest expenditure.

Practice in the UK continues to reflect the historical separation of revenue and expenditure. The UK budget consists of a number of different documents. A sketchy report of the government’s intentions is given in an Autumn Statement, usually published in November. This document contains expenditure plans for the forthcoming three years. Details of these plans and the aims of government expenditure and the output obtained are given in an annual White Paper in February or March. The documents concerned with the revenue side are represented in a separate volume entitled the Financial Statement and Budget Report usually presented in March. This gives a general outline of the economic policy, details of proposed tax changes and estimates of likely revenues, as well as the size of the reserve to cover unforeseen events. It is very difficult to relate the public expenditure White Paper to the Financial Statement and Budget Report. The social security expenditure is presented in yet another document.

Each year the British government reviews and carries forward its public expenditure plans in the Public Expenditure Survey and publishes the results in a White Paper. Then they are submitted in the form of Supply Estimates to Parliament for approval.

There are different ways of analyzing total public spending. Each of them is useful for answering different questions. It may be organized by department - "who plans it". This covers all spending for which the relevant Secretary of State (one of several members of the government in charge of departments) is responsible whether it is carried out by Central government, local authorities or public corporations. But figures are also given for these different spending authorities -"who spends it" - and for economic categories - "what it is spent оn". Some departments spend money on a range of different functions. To complement the purely departmenlal approach, spending can also be analyzed on a purely functional basis. This is information on "where it goes".

[1] брит. фин. Канцлер казначейства, министр финансов (один из ведущих министров; входит в состав кабинета; должность сохранилась с тех времен, когда главный финансовый орган Великобритании назывался Exchequer; представляет проект государственного бюджета в парламенте).

[2] Финансовый план Великобритании на предстоящий год, содержащий экономические прогнозы и предполагаемые изменения в налогообложении.

[3] брит. правит. жарг. «Зеленая книга» / «Зеленый доклад» (правительственная публикация, в которой излагаются предложения для всеобщего обсуждения).

[4] брит. правит. жарг. "Белая книга" (официальный правительственный документ; представляется палате общин британского парламента).

Дата добавления: 2015-07-11