Deficit, Surplus, Debt; Progressive, Proportional, Regressive: Sorting the Taxes

The idea

The exam names a tax or a budget position and asks its type, and the anchor's chapter supplies the terms. A budget deficit is spending above tax receipts in a year; a surplus, receipts above spending; a balanced budget, equal; the national debt is the accumulated sum of past deficits and surpluses. A progressive tax takes a greater share of income from higher incomes, the federal income tax; a proportional tax a flat share regardless of income, the Medicare payroll tax; a regressive tax a smaller share from higher incomes, the Social Security payroll tax above its threshold. The marginal tax rate is the rate on the next dollar of income: the anchor's example taxes income in brackets and calls a single filer at thirty-five thousand a fifteen percent marginal taxpayer.