The Budget for Fiscal Year 2004 (CRS Report for Congress)
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Release Date |
Revised Nov. 1, 2004 |
Report Number |
RL31784 |
Report Type |
Report |
Authors |
Philip D. Winters, Government and Finance Division |
Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
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Summary:
The Presidentâs fiscal year (FY) 2004 budget included a deficit of $307 billion (an estimated 2.7% of gross domestic product, GDP). Under the Presidentâs proposals and estimates, the deficit would shrink through FY2008, the last year of the Administrationâs estimates, when it will reach $190 billion (1.4% of GDP). The proposals called for speeding up and making permanent many of the tax cuts enacted over the last two years, along with tax changes for economic stimulus, tax incentives, and expiring tax provisions. The tax proposals would reduce revenues an estimated $493 billion between FY2004 and FY2008 and by $1,461 billion between FY2004 and FY2013. The President would increase spending in some areas (health) and reduce it in others (natural resources and environment). Overall, the proposals would reduce outlays, when measured against the baseline estimates, by $40 billion in FY2004 and by $529 billion over the five years. [...] A conference report resolving the differences between the budget resolutions from the House (H.Con.Res. 95) and Senate (S.Con.Res. 23) cleared Congress on April 11. The agreement contained different sized tax-cut reconciliation instructions for the House Ways and Means Committee ($550 billion) and the Senate Finance Committee ($350 billion). An agreement within the Senate restricts the size of any tax cut emerging from a future conference committee on the tax cut to $350 billion. On May 9, the House passed its tax-cut reconciliation bill (H.R. 2); on May 9, the Senate passed its reconciliation bill (S. 1054, originally S. 2). Leadership agreement between the House and Senate puts the tax cut at $350 billion and resolves the other differences in the reconciliation bill. This report will be updated as events warrant.