Money & budgets
budget baseline
The projection of spending and revenue under current law, against which every proposal's cost is measured. Change the baseline and you change every number.
In full
CBO builds the baseline by projecting current law forward, including the assumption that temporary provisions expire on schedule. A bill that extends an expiring tax cut therefore scores as a cost, even though nothing changes in practice. Arguments about the right baseline are often the real argument about whether a policy is expensive.
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A plain-language explanation for civic education, not legal advice. When in doubt, the official source named above controls.