Budget

a bag or package of miscellaneous articles, as a budget of old clothes or a budget of news. In the history of England the budget is an annual statement of finances read by the chancellor of the exchequer before the House of Commons. It contains a statement of expenses necessary for the coming year, and proposes a scale of taxation to provide the means. Sometimes the chancellor is able to propose a reduction of taxation in certain directions, and sometimes he is under the grave necessity of proposing extraordinary expenditure and grievous taxation. The term is coming into general use in discussing the finances of any nation. The amount of annual expenditure is given in statistics accompanying the countries of importance. See Parliament