pay-for

n. in pay-as-you-go (or PAYGO) budgeting, a spending cut or tax increase that covers the budget for a piece of legislation. Subjects: English, Money & Finance, Politics, Jargon

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Citations: 1999 Political Transcripts by Federal Document Clearing House (Oct. 21) “Democratic Party Congressional Leadership Hold News Conference”: Democrats—do Democrats oppose the policies reflected in the tax provisions in the minimum wage bill? If a pay-for could be found, do you have any problem, since this is what—a much smaller tax provision than the vetoed bill? What’s your position? 2003 Committee on Financial Services U.S. House of Representatives (Washington, D.C.) (Apr. 30) “United States Monetary and Economic Policy”: I think Chairman Greenspan mentioned today that he thought that it would be a slam dunk, no-brainer if you could find a pay-for for that, if you could make it so that it was revenue neutral. But I would argue that if you were to look at the net economic effect of the president’s plan absent such a pay-for, that it would still move you to make this reform because, again, if we don’t, then we’re going to fail to address a very pressing problem. 2007 Jeffrey H. Birnbaum Washngton Post (Mar. 12) “New Math on Hill, Scramble on K Street”: The Democrats’ new pay-as-you-go budget regimen means that lawmakers who want to spend more on one program have to either cut another or raise taxes to pay for it. Similarly, if they want to cut taxes, they must fund the cut by trimming programs or raising other taxes to make up the difference. Those budgetary offsets are called pay-fors—a new Washington buzzword striking fear in the hearts of special interests.

Posted 14 Mar 07 | Permalink | Tell a Friend