WASHINGTON, Feb. 3, 2008
Bush Proposes Budget With $400B Deficit
Education, Health, Housing And Anti-Poverty Programs Face Budget Squeeze In $3 Trillion Blueprint
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President Bush's proposed budget projects $400 billion deficits both this year and next, but still promotes making his tax cuts for the well-to-do permanent. (AP)
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Even with difficult-to-digest proposals to curb Medicare costs and kill programs to repair dilapidated public housing, fund community action agencies and provide food to the elderly poor, Mr. Bush's $3 trillion budget will project deficits around $400 billion this year and next.
Mr. Bush's submission is already absorbing brickbats from Democrats castigating him for inheriting a government in surplus and leaving Washington with a budget deficit that is likely to break the $413 billion record set four years ago, once war bills and the cost of giving the economy a fiscal jolt with tax rebate checks are factored in.
"The next president is going to inherit a colossal mess because of the fiscal irresponsibility of this president," Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., chairman of the Budget Committee said Saturday.
Mr. Bush's budget will demonstrate a way to produce balance in four years and still renew tax cuts on income, investments and people inheriting large estates - cuts now scheduled to expire at the end of 2010. The cost of renewing those tax cuts exceeds $300 billion by 2013, according to congressional scorekeepers.
But he'll only be able to predict that balance by cutting spending in ways that Congress - whether controlled by Republicans or Democrats - has rejected many times before. After his proposal to kill or significantly cut 141 programs to save $12 billion was rejected by Congress last year, Mr. Bush is upping the ante by 50 percent with an even more controversial plan. And his bid to squeeze $178 billion from Medicare over five years has no chance on Capitol Hill, even though the program would still grow by 5 percent a year under his proposal.
Despite a worsening deficit picture, caused in large part by slumping tax revenues as the economy sours, Congress is likely to take no action this year to reverse the tide. No one likes to take painful steps to reduce federal spending in a presidential election year, and lawmakers typically don't defer to unpopular, lame duck presidents.
"This will be a placeholder year," Conrad said. "That's the reality."
While the Bush budget will receive a dead-on-arrival reception from lawmakers and be overshadowed by Tuesday's presidential primaries, administration officials have been promoting its more appealing elements in recent days.
Funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program, the subject of an intense battle with Democrats last year, would increase by almost $20 billion over the next five years. An additional $6 billion is requested to finish a massive project to protect New Orleans from flooding. And the Food and Drug Administration would get a larger-than-average budget increase to send FDA staff overseas to inspect food and drugs imported into the United States.
Mr. Bush also backs $2 billion over three years to help get cleaner and more efficient energy technology to big polluters like India and China.
Other details the administration might not be as eager to promote have been leaking out from a variety of sources with particular knowledge about specific areas of the budget and from some budget planning documents seen in advance.
When the full document is out Monday, the full wrath of interest groups will be felt. Hospitals and other health care providers are already protesting cuts to Medicare and the Medicaid health care program for the poor and disabled, while advocates for the poor vow to again reverse huge cuts to social services block grants to states and funding for nonprofit groups that help the poor.
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Affected industries can be counted on to protest user fees, even those as small as a 50-cents-per-flight ticket tax to finance screening machines for the Transportation Security Administration that are intended to detect explosives being smuggled aboard airplanes.The next president is going to inherit a colossal mess because of the fiscal irresponsibility of this president.
Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D.The Bush forecast for a balanced budget by 2012 also is likely to strike many as unrealistic, depending as it does on the assumption that there will be no additional no war costs for Afghanistan or Iraq after a $70 billion infusion for next year.
The White House budget also does not account for the huge cost of preventing the alternative minimum tax from hitting millions and millions of upper middle-class taxpayers after 2009. The White House and congressional Republicans blasted House Democrats as raising taxes for trying to offset AMT relief by closing a loophole on offshore tax havens; Bush's budget effectively assumes AMT relief after a one-year "patch" for next year is financed by tax increases elsewhere.
Elsewhere, cuts in the Bush budget would eliminate a $302 million program that gives grants to children's hospitals to subsidize medical education. A $300 million program for public health improvement projects would be eliminated, while grants to improve health care in rural areas would be cut by 87 percent.
The Centers for Disease Control's budget would face a 7 percent reduction of $433 million. The budget for a program to treat and monitor the health of first responders and others exposed to toxins at the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11 attacks would be cut by 77 percent, from $108 million this year to $25 million in 2009.
The National Institutes of Health, which funds health research grants, would see its budget frozen at $29.5 billion.
At A Glance:
President Bush on Monday will release a $3 trillion budget for 2009. Here is a look at some of its elements:
DEFICITS: The plan will claim deficits in the $400 billion range for this year and next. For the 2009 budget year covered by the Bush plan, deficits are likely to rise higher than Mr. Bush predicts after additional war costs are added in.
DEFENSE: The Pentagon would get a $35 billion increase to $515 billion for core programs, about 7 percent, with war costs additional. Another $21 billion would go to the Energy Department for nuclear weapons programs. A $70 billion "bridge fund" for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would give the next president time to consider options, with tens of billions of dollars more needed regardless of any strategy shift.
DOMESTIC APPROPRIATIONS: These would be essentially frozen at current levels, with most services being cut after inflation and population growth are factored in.
HOMELAND SECURITY: Overall, the budget for homeland security programs will increase by almost 11 percent, with a 19 percent increase for border security and immigration enforcement efforts, including new money to secure the border with Mexico.
MEDICARE AND MEDICAID: The programs will see almost $200 billion in cuts over the next five years, about three times the savings proposed last year but rejected by Congress. Much of the savings would come from freezing reimbursement rates for most health care providers for three years and from cutting payments to hospitals serving large numbers of the uninsured poor.
HEALTH: Health and Human Services Department funding would be cut by $2 billion, amounting to a 3 percent reduction. Funding for the National Institutes of Health would be frozen. The Food and Drug Administration would receive a 6 percent boost to $2.4 billion to ramp up food and drug safety efforts.
EDUCATION: Education programs would be frozen at $60 billion, with no increase to keep pace with inflation. Bush is pushing to restore $600 million lawmakers cut from Reading First, which serves low-income children. Title I grants, the main source of federal funding for poor students, would rise about 3 percent. Special education would receive $11.3 billion, a $330 million increase.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Continuing tax cuts for the most wealthy of us while cutting programs for the poorest of us are the policies of a "compassionate conservative"?
"I call my philosophy and approach "compassionate conservatism." It is compassionate to actively help our fellow citizens in need." - G.W. Bush, April 30, 2002
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/04/20020430-5.html
I wonder if "drawing and quartering" is considered to be torture.......
Next time a "conservative" lectures you about anything with the words "fiscal responsibility", "controlled spending", or "national debt":
Say the words "George Bushit" real loud and spit in his or her face.
And of course the street level "conservatives" will go right along, as if it never happened.
Trickle down?
Oh, and the article is wrong. Congress will take an action. They''ll vote to give themselves raises again. How come their wages can''t be frozen?
Posted by brianbwb at 10:09 AM : Feb 03, 2008
"Four legs good, two legs better!".......
$1.9 trillion spent in Iraq
4000 dead Americans
935 LIES
IMPEACH THE LYING CROOK.
Can somebody give substantial reasons/thoughts instead of empty one-liners?
If anybody still believes Bush to be on THE MISSION OF GOD to bring the BATTLE OF ARMAGADDON and 2ND COMING OF CHRIST, should be seen by a psychiatrist.
Again, I am going to repeat myself. Financial and military defeat in this war is a defeat for America but it''s a SUCCESS FOR BUSH AND CHENEY.
If another Republican enters the White House January 20th, 2009, across our land we''ll be standing to the side waving as a gold covered coach cruises from one feudal castle to the next.
A "deficit" is spending money that you don''t have.
That usually means you borrow it, and pay interest on it, which interest adds to budget expenses every year, which further crowds out the ability to bring expenses in line with the money you have.
Federal governments, throughout world histoy, have resorted to printing more money, ultimately, to deal with debts they can''t pay. That causes huge inflation.
THE REPUBLICANS HAVE BECOME THE "BORROW & SPEND" PARTY. What they have already done will hurt the country for years to come.
THERE IS NOTHING "CONSERVATIVE" ABOUT THAT.
Real conservatives are being fooled. A true conservative values fiscal responsibility. Wake up!
Every tme a politician promotes tax cuts, without specifically and realistically identifying where corresponding expenses are going to be cut, they are either dangerously incompetent, or dishonest.
Any speach that includes both tax cuts and a batch of wonderful new proposals (most of which cost additional money) is the worst kind of government dishonesty and irresponsibility.
We need honest leadership!
And that''s the rub isn''t it?
How are massive businesses in America comparing to other businesses around the globe as far as profitability and overall worth? Is that why Bush gives tax cuts to them? So they''ll be enticed to stay here and not move their businesses abroad? Businesses are in business to what? Make money. If they make a lot less by staying in the U.S., why would they stay? Money rules all does it not?
Personally, I say let them leave, and tariff their azzez to death, another business will fill the void, but hey, what do I know...I''m not a CEO.
what he is doing is trying to ensure the next 4 years of tax revenue still goes to his donors like Halliburton, Blackwater many others.
A "deficit" is spending money that you don''''t have.
That usually means you borrow it, and pay interest on it, which interest adds to budget expenses every year, which further crowds out the ability to bring expenses in line with the money you have.
Federal governments, throughout world histoy, have resorted to printing more money, ultimately, to deal with debts they can''''t pay. That causes huge inflation.
THE REPUBLICANS HAVE BECOME THE "BORROW & SPEND" PARTY. What they have already done will hurt the country for years to come.
THERE IS NOTHING "CONSERVATIVE" ABOUT THAT.
Real conservatives are being fooled. A true conservative values fiscal responsibility. Wake up!
Every tme a politician promotes tax cuts, without specifically and realistically identifying where corresponding expenses are going to be cut, they are either dangerously incompetent, or dishonest.
Any speach that includes both tax cuts and a batch of wonderful new proposals (most of which cost additional money) is the worst kind of government dishonesty and irresponsibility.
We need honest leadership!
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Well said Patriot
Most people dont know the difference. I for one am a true conservative, and it makes me sick to see what this fool is doing. I just hope my elderly mother doesn''t get sick
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Posted by NavyRetired2 at 10:58 AM : Feb 03, 2008
That another business won''t be American for sure. We are going towards Military and Financial bankrupcy before seeing next terrorist attack. All of Bush''s war polices benifited OSAMA BEEN FORGOTTEN and other Islamic Radicals world wide. Iraq was a trap for our troops and we can''t get out of that even if we want. Bush seems to be last nail in the coffin of the United States.
borrow and spend republicans
Their bragging article yesterday on their profits was sickening!
We should set a get a good percentage of their money to pay back for the security contractors protecting the Iraqi oil fields, and the pipeline...we should get about at least a billion out of it for Condi Rice''s travel expenses in the middle east for trying to put that handy dandy deal together.
We are letting these people operate on near full profit! This is insane!
I don''t think Bush really cares about Americans with Average or below average Socio-Economic status. People with average or below average socio-economic status can''t contribute well for the Election Fund raising any way.
I don''t know how different is bush from his mother Barbara Bush who issued following statement for Katrina victims;
"Those people were UNDER-PREVILIGED any way".
And that lie is the, falsely claimed, %u201Ctax cuts%u201D, which weren%u2019t tax cuts at all.
The money was simply shifted to the pockets of the wealthy, via the federal credit card.
As is the case of all credit card spending, there are huge costs involved, i.e. interest on the debt incurred, which currently amounts to $1/2 trillion EVERY year.
Actually, the credit for its initiation has to go to the Ronald Reagan administration with ample credit to the Republican Party in general.
It is always easy to sell/con anything by playing to people%u2019s natural greed.
When fewer taxes are withheld from our paychecks it is all too easy to disregard the fact that it will have to be paid later, with interest.
While it is difficult to comprehend why Americans have allowed this to continue for decades, one only needs to consider the fact that millions of people are either bankrupt or nearing bankruptcy due to PERSONAL credit spending.
While many of us have fought this from the beginning, we, as a people, are responsible, because, in the final analysis, in a democracy, the majority always rules.
"Those people were UNDER-PREVILIGED any way".
What enforcement efforts?? Lies! Lies! The more
illegals, the more money for big companys.
Bring back the Unions!! Strong Unions will put an end
to illegals!!!
real Americans!
The Nazis'' are here! Its just a matter of time~!
Want a college education? How about saving for it. Why is it my responsibility to send somebody''s offspring to college?
Elderly poor?--Should have saved/invested for retirement. Why is it my responsibility if they did not plan ahead?
"The Pentagon would get a $35 billion increase to $515 billion"
CUT
"war costs additional"
CUT
"$21 billion to the Energy Department for nuclear weapons programs"
CUT
"$70 billion "bridge fund" for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan"
CUT
"tens of billions of dollars more needed regardless of any strategy shift"
CUT
That pretty much solves the budget problem.
The Great Emperor argues that American households are unable to balance a budget anyway, so why should he try to balance one? Besides, the Bush family has never had to live according to a budget since they are so wealthy anyway, they wouldn''t know how to balance a budget if they tried.
As far as cutting social programs, the Great Emperor''s mother said it best when she said "They''re UNDER PRIVILEGED people anyway!". So the Great Emperor Bush feels: Who cares about the little people!
SIG HEIL, BUSH!!!
Lets not replace one incompetent with another one.
Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham, either one, will put America back on the right track.
for Medicare. Its taken from my SS check every month
which I recive be cause I paid into SS for 40 years.
Not a freebie.
What enforcement efforts?? Lies! Lies! The more
illegals, the more money for big companys.
Bring back the Unions!! Strong Unions will put an end
to illegals!!!
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Posted by jochitragman at 11:38 AM : Feb 03, 2008
One more reason to get the National Gaurd back here where it belongs. Let them gaurd our borders. They are already getting a check, while we already have 4 other branches of military. Shouldn''t that be enough.
Remember, if the Gaurdsmen and women wanted full time duty, they would have joined one of the other 4 branches
Sent illegals back where they came from!! They are
a burden on the "programs" and have done nothing to
earn any of it.
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Fair enough.
How about stopping subsidy to wealthy sports owners so they can have new stadiums at our expense?
Why do oil companies need tax money when they report record profits?
Why are jobs being offshored? Companies don''t even train good performing workers within anymore.
In the 1950s-1970s, people COULD spend cash, save for retirement, have one person be the breadwinner, and not two.
Eisenhower is where it''s at. Hmmm, he''s dead too...
If the hippies didn''t wank. get each other pregnant out of wedlock, and/or smoke pot and THEN think all that was the cure for society''s ills... *sigh*
Hahahahahahaha.
Don"t ever call this "funding our troops."
It"s funding wars to keep American troops in harms way
as long as possible, to protect Bush"s ego and reputation as a "war president."
This war wasn"t their idea. Very few of Bush"s wealthy friends or their offspring are over there now. Bush"s future son-in-law sips fancy drinks at the White House and the Bush ranch as he"s getting on with his promising civilian career.
We should fund the troops by bringing them home and seeing that their health and other benefits are first class.
And as much as I don''t like the idea of them getting free care at our expense (especially to cure their TB amongst other things), Americans should get the level of treatment -- thanks to the vermin who cross the borders wrongfully.
And why come here when all the jobs are going overseas anyway? Even $30k graphic design jobs are deemed too expensive... then wonder why Rasmarshmallow college (name altered) and the ilk whine nobody''s taking classes. (Uh, $40k+ for a design job that pays $30k and will likely be offshored anyway?!)
Ditto for the larger colleges... everyone knows higher education isn''t needed for most jobs, and with the costs rising, it''s going to be out of reach. America is going to be neck-deep in problems if our President, currently George W. Bush, and/or the next one can''t resolve these real problems.
We as Americans will do our part, for America and for the world economy (it''s a symbiosis), but the current imbalance does make having even faith a bit much to have.
Modern Conservatism/Neoconism is a morally and economically bankrupting philosophy that espouses the insane belief that the the solution to every problem is to simply transfer more money from the working class to the pockets of the super wealthy and that we can charge our way to prosperity.
Conservatives came to power saying that Washington didn''t work any more. They proved it by selling the halls of government to the highest bidder and bankrupting the treasury.
Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D.
Yeah, and all that too. Especially the oil barons. Nothing wrong with profit, but what they are passing on to the American public is a crime. The government should nationalize Exxon/Mobile like Truman did with the railroads/Coal mines back in late 40''s when they were riping the public off. We need a president with some ballls!
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