BDx13
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"It's a budget that's a lean budget." - DUBYA
god dammit, this man is infuriating.
Bush's $2.57T Budget Plan Seeks Steep Cuts
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) sent Congress a $2.57 trillion budget plan Monday that would boost spending on the military and
homeland security but seeks spending cuts across a wide swath of other government programs. Bush's budget would reduce subsidies paid to farmers, cut
health programs for poor people and veterans and trim spending on the environment and education.
"It is a budget that sets priorities," Bush said after a meeting with his Cabinet. "It's a budget that reduces and eliminates redundancy. It's a
budget that's a lean budget."
Bush acknowledged that it would be difficult to eliminate popular programs but he said programs must prove their worth. "I look forward to explaining
to the American people why we made some of the requests that we made in our budget," the president told reporters.
Joshua Bolten, Bush's budget director, said, "Are we going to get everything we asked for? No." But he predicted Congress would likely accept the
administration's broad priorities. He said he entered the upcoming congressional budget battle with a "happy spirit."
Democrats immediately branded the budget a "hoax" because it left out the huge future costs for the war in Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan
(news - web sites) and did not include the billions of dollars that will be needed for Bush's No. 1 domestic priority, overhauling Social Security
(news - web sites).
Bolten said the administration would soon be coming forward with a supplemental request for an additional $81 billion for operations in Iraq and
Afghanistan. He said that request was reflected in the overall spending projections in Bush's budget for the current year and into 2006.
But he said including further additional spending for Iraq and Afghanistan "wouldn't be responsible" because it would represent guesses on what will
be needed. Bolten also said that even if transition costs for Social Security had been included, the president would still be able to meet his goal of
cutting the deficit in half by 2009 as a percentage of the total economy.
The budget ? the most austere of Bush's presidency ? would eliminate or vastly scale back 150 government programs. It will spark months of contentious
debate in Congress, where lawmakers will fight to protect their favored programs.
House Democratic Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) of California called Bush's budget "a hoax on the American people. The two issues
that dominated the president's State of the Union address ? Iraq and Social Security ? are nowhere to be found in this budget."
The spending document projects that the deficit will hit a record $427 billion this year, the third straight year that the red ink in dollar terms has
set a record. Bush projects that the deficit will fall to $390 billion in 2006 and gradually decline to $233 billion in 2009 and $207 billion in 2010.
Bush's 2006 spending plan, for the budget year that begins next Oct. 1, counts on a healthy economy to boost revenues by 6.1 percent to $2.18
trillion. Spending, meanwhile, would grow by 3.5 percent to $2.57 trillion.
However, outside defense, homeland security and the government's huge mandatory programs such as Social Security, Bush proposes cutting spending by
0.5 percent, the first such proposed cut since the Reagan administration battled with its own soaring deficits.
Of 23 major government agencies, 12 would see their budget authority reduced next year, including cuts of 9.6 percent at Agriculture, 5.6 percent at
the Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites), 6.7 percent at Transportation and 11.5 percent at Housing and Urban Development.
In his budget message to Congress, Bush said, "In order to sustain our economic expansion, we must continue pro-growth policies and enforce even
greater spending restraint across the federal government."
But Democrats complained that Bush was resorting to draconian cuts that would hurt the needy in order to protect his first term tax cuts that
primarily benefited the wealthy.
"This budget is part of the Republican plan to cut Social Security benefits while handing out lavish tax breaks for multimillionaires," said Senate
Democratic Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "Its cuts in veterans programs, health care and education reflect the wrong priorities and its huge deficits are
fiscally irresponsible."
Democrats also contended that the budget masked the costs of some Bush initiatives such as making his first-term tax cuts permanent by only making
deficit projections through 2010. The budget puts the cost of making Bush's tax cuts permanent at $1.1 trillion through 2015 but does not show how
that would impact the deficit at that time.
"This budget paints a misleading picture by providing no deficit figures after 2010 and by omitting the full long-term costs of the president's
policies on Social Security privatization, taxes and operations in Iraq," said Rep. John Spratt (news, bio, voting record), top Democrat on the House
Budget Committee.
Bush's budget proposed increasing military spending by 4.8 percent to $419.3 billion in 2006. However, even with the increase a number of major
weapons programs, including Bush's missile defense system and the B-2 stealth bomber, would see cuts from this year's levels.
Aside from defense and homeland security, favored Bush programs included a new $1.5 billion high school performance program, expanded Pell Grants for
low-income college students and more support for community health clinics.
One of the most politically sensitive targets on Bush's hit list is the government support program for farmers, which he wants to trim by $5.7 billion
over the next decade, which would represent cuts to farmers growing a wide range of cuts from cotton and rice to corn, soybeans and wheat.
Overall, the administration projected saving $8.2 billion in agriculture programs over the next decade including trimming food stamp payments to the
poor by $1.1 billion.
Other programs set for cuts include the Army Corps of Engineers, whose dam and other waterway projects are extremely popular in Congress; the Energy
Department; several health programs under the Health and Human Services (news - web sites) Department and federal subsidies for the Amtrak passenger
railroad.
About one-third of the programs being targeted for elimination are in the Education Department, including federal grant programs for local schools in
such areas as vocational education, anti-drug efforts and Even Start, a $225 million literacy program.
In all, the president proposed savings of $137 billion over 10 years in mandatory programs with much of that occurring in reductions in Medicaid, the
big federal-state program that provides health care for the poor, and in payments the Veterans Affairs Department makes for health care. The
administration proposed no savings for Medicare, the giant health care program for the elderly.
Many of the spending cuts in the budget are repeats of efforts the administration has proposed and Congress has rejected previously.
If I fail math, there goes my chance at a good job and a happy life full of hard work.
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Killthehumans
Senior Member
Posts: 597
Registered: 12-1-2004
Member Is Offline
Mood: simon and garfunkal
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i read it too...dont worry duane, when people dont' get social security, when the environment is fucked up, when there is no money to pave roads, pay
for textbooks in public schools, subsidize farming(this is why food in this country is so cheap) we can both laugh in everyones face. At least that is
what i am planning to do.
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moron
Posting Freak
Posts: 2393
Registered: 5-28-2003
Location: CT
Member Is Offline
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so far Ive read only the first line, and I dont really get this guy. In essence, he's doing what a Republican wants to do. Eliminate federal
spending on programs to help people and the environment, and increase defense spending. The only thing is that he's also going back on stuff that he
promised for the first four years. Didn't he say he was going to give tons of money to his "no child left behind" program... which wasnt too great
anyway... and now he's cutting funding for education? Also, Im sure that all of the farmers and veterans who voted for him are gonna be cursing him
out soon enough if this budget goes through.
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Killthehumans
Senior Member
Posts: 597
Registered: 12-1-2004
Member Is Offline
Mood: simon and garfunkal
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but moron, wait! don't you remeber his speech about spreading freedom....the only way we can do that is by strengthening the military and cut
humaniarian programs!!!
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clevohardcore
* Kick\'n ass on the wild side *
Posts: 12937
Registered: 9-19-2004
Member Is Offline
Mood: Sick Of It All, Youth Of Today
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i read it too...dont worry duane, when people dont' get social security, when the environment is fucked up, when there is no money to pave roads, pay
for textbooks in public schools, subsidize farming(this is why food in this country is so cheap) we can both laugh in everyones face. At least that is
what i am planning to do
^^^^^^ Everything you have mentioned is already happening.
Each aspect of the soul has it's own part to play, but the ideal is harmonious agreement with reason and control.
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Killthehumans
Senior Member
Posts: 597
Registered: 12-1-2004
Member Is Offline
Mood: simon and garfunkal
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Oh its gonna get worse...
just take a look at the papers
your leaders
they\'re killers
they\'re liars
what they do in your
name to make the bodies pile higher
the murders, the terror
they\'ve done it forever
as we sit band and smile
at the script they sell us
but now the victims, they\'re rising
their numbers\'s multiplying
they want their revenge for the years
that they\'ve been dying
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