With Congress having adopted its first budget resolution in
several years, many questions have arisen as to what the
legislation means for the federal government, businesses and
individual taxpayers. In order to understand the budget deal, it is
important to consider the context within which the agreement was
reached, as well as the specific provisions it contains. Doing so
allows for a more effective examination of the goals and potential
impact of this significant, albeit incremental, measure.
By way of background, the Joint Select Committee on Deficit
Reduction, or "Super Committee," created by the Budget
Control Act of 2011 (BCA) failed to identify $1.1 trillion dollars
in federal spending reductions as was required of it by law. As a
result, across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration took
effect, despite the intentionally painful nature of the cuts
– a characteristic meant to incent Republicans and
Democrats to find common ground on difficult spending
