    [A Citizen's Guide to the Federal Budget]
    [Front Matter]
    [From the U.S. Government Printing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page i]]

    Table of Contents

       A Note to the Reader......................................   iii

       1. What Is the Budget?....................................     1

       2. Where the Money Comes From-and Where It
          Goes...................................................     5
           Revenues..............................................     7
           Spending..............................................    10
           ``On'' and ``Off'' Budget.............................    15

       3. How Does the Government Create a Budget................    17
           The President's Budget................................    17
           The Budget Process....................................    17
           Action in Congress....................................    18
           Monitoring the Budget.................................    20

       4. The Budget Surplus and Fiscal Discipline...............    21
           Why a Budget Surplus is Important.....................    23
           Surplus and Debt......................................    25
           Returning the Budget to Surplus.......................    26

       5. The President's 2000 Budget............................    29
           Investing in the Future...............................    29
           Improving Performance Through Better Management.......    32

    Glossary.....................................................    35

    List of Charts and Tables....................................    39

    [[Page iii]]

    A Note to the Reader

       Next year, your Federal Government will spend nearly $1.8 trillion.

       Needless to say, that's a lot of money. And the Government spends it
       on lots of things--on programs as large and popular as Social
       Security, and on activities as small and unknown as repairs to the
       National Zoo.  Together, these programs are what make up the Federal
       budget.

       How much do you know about the budget? If your answer is ``not much,''
       you're not alone. In fact, hardly anybody knows everything that's in
       the thousands of pages, and several books, that make up the budget
       each year.

       But we know you care a lot about how the Government spends your money.
       That's why we created A Citizen's Guide to the Federal Budget four
       years ago, and why we have published this fifth edition. With it, we
       hope to make the budget more accessible and understandable.

       The Guide is designed to give you a walking tour of the budget. In
       these pages, we will outline for you how the Government raises
       revenues and spends money, how the President and Congress enact the
       budget, why the budget deficit and Federal debt have been problems,
       and what the President hopes to accomplish with his 2000 budget.

       After you read these pages, we hope that you will think the tour was
       worth your time.