"My plan reduces the national debt, and fast. So fast, in fact, that economists worry that we're going to run out of debt to retire." —radio address, Feb. 24, 2001
Unbelieveable. Fortunately this won't go through as is.
Bush aims to tame deficits with domestic cuts
By Caren Bohan and Andrea Hopkins Mon Feb 6, 1:21 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
President George W. Bush on Monday proposed a $2.77 trillion budget that cuts programs from Medicare to education, prompting Democratic criticism that the elderly and working Americans were bearing the brunt of his fiscal mismanagement.
Facing election-year pressure from conservative Republicans to get tougher on spending, Bush asked the U.S. Congress in his fiscal 2007 budget to cut discretionary programs outside national security by 0.5 percent.
Bush proposed a record $439.3 billion defense budget aimed at fighting unconventional terrorism and major conflicts with other nations if necessary. On top of that, the White House will seek new financing for wars in
Iraq and
Afghanistan.
The president renewed his call for Republican-led Congress to make his tax cuts permanent even as his blueprint projected a surge in the federal deficit to $423 billion this year, up more than $100 billion from fiscal 2005.
Bush said in his budget message that failing to extend his tax cuts would amount to a tax increase.
Democrats, hoping to overturn Republican dominance in both chambers of Congress in November elections, are set to hammer Bush for seeking big tax cuts in a time of soaring deficits and for underestimating the cost of the Iraq war.
Sen. Kent Conrad (news, bio, voting record), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, said the budget was misleading because it did not fully account for costs of Iraq war or for other anticipated expenses such as shielding middle-class Americans from the costs of the alternative minimum
tax.
"It represents the same reckless fiscal course the Bush administration has followed for the last five years," Conrad said.
Lawmakers will debate the budget this spring and the eventual product could look very different from Bush's plan.
The White House penciled in a $50 billion allowance for war spending in 2007 but budget director Joshua Bolten said that was simply based on Congress's initial allowance for 2006 and was not a firm assessment of what might be needed.
"It's very hard to say what we'll be spending 18 months from now in Iraq," Bolten said. "It has been a very expensive undertaking."
A new infusion this year of $70 billion in emergency funds for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan dwarfs the proposed domestic program cuts in fiscal 2007 and is double the five-year savings of $36 billion in Medicare.
Total war spending for 2006 is $120 billion -- the single biggest discretionary item in the budget. The $70 billion in emergency funds is in addition to $50 billion that Congress already approved.
ELECTION-YEAR WORRIES
Even though fiscal conservatives are frustrated with the deficits, lawmakers are usually squeamish about cutting programs in an election year, making the Bush's budget wish list a tough sell.
Nine of the 15 Cabinet agencies would see cuts, including justice, transportation and education. Among those targeted by the budget knife are community policing and a program to combat violence against women. Education spending would be down 3.8 percent, partially through the elimination of programs like vocational education and college preparation for poor students.
The budget aims to keep overall growth in discretionary spending below the inflation rate, which was 3.4 percent in 2005. Bush proposed to scale back or abolish 141 discretionary programs that he says are performing poorly. Discretionary programs are those that Congress funds anew each year.
Bush also hopes to squeeze $65 billion in savings over five years from mandatory programs, including Medicare, the nation's health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, farm supports and pension and other labor-related programs. Medicare is slated to take a $36 billion hit through such measures as slower growth in hospital payments.
The administration emphasized that was not an outright cut in the program, whose costs are expected to rise sharply both because of rising health costs and demographic trends. The growth in Medicare spending would be slowed to 7.5 percent per year from 7.8 percent.
Bush inherited surpluses from former Democratic President
Bill Clinton but that quickly turned around and the deficit soared on his watch, reaching a record $413 billion in fiscal 2004.
Spending for the Iraq war and Hurricane Katrina have helped contribute to an expected rise in the deficit in fiscal 2007 to $423 billion from $318 billion in 2006. But Bush still maintains he can halve the shortfall by 2009 to $208 billion.
A handful of domestic programs would get fresh cash. Those include research and development, math and science education, high-tech training and alternative fuel sources.
Just imagine how much we'd be spending if we hadn't Ended Welfare As We Know It a few years ago.
WacoFan wrote:Flying any airplane that you can hear the radio over the roaring radial engine is just ghey anyway.... Of course, Cirri are the Miata of airplanes..
