GLOSSARY. · Actual budget records the actual dollar expenditures, revenues, and deficits in a given period

· Actual budget records the actual dollar expenditures, revenues, and deficits in a given period.

· Automatic stabilizers are federal expenditures and tax revenues that automatically change levels in order to stabilize an economic expansion or contraction; sometimes referred to as nondiscretionary fiscal policy.

· Balance budget is a budget when revenues and expenditures are equal during a given period.

· Budget deficit is a budget in which government expenditures exceed government revenues in a given time period.

· Budget surplus is a budget in which government revenues exceed government expenditures in a given time period.

· Discretionary fiscal policy is the deliberate use of changes in government spending or taxes to alter aggregate demand and stabilize the economy.

· Fiscal policy is the use of government spending and taxes to influence the nation's output, employment, and price level.

· Government debt (sometimes called public debt) consists of the total or accumulated borrowings by the government; it is the total dollar value of government bonds owned by the public (households, banks, businesses, foreigners, and other non-federal entities).

· Spending multiplier is the change in aggregate demand (total spending) resulting from an initial change in any component of aggregate demand, including consumption, investment, government spending, and net export.

· Tax multiplier is the change in aggregate demand (total spending) resulting from an initial change in taxes.