Bush Proposes Budget With $400B Deficit

Education, Health, Housing And Anti-Poverty Programs Face Budget Squeeze In $3 Trillion Blueprint

(AP)  The spiraling growth of Medicare and the high cost of renewing President Bush's tax cuts are squeezing popular education, health, housing and anti-poverty programs in the budget blueprint that he hands lawmakers Monday.

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.

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 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.

[grazinggoat]

$400 billion deficit
$1.9 trillion spent in Iraq
4000 dead Americans
935 LIES
IMPEACH THE LYING CROOK.
Posted by jerr11 at 10:23 AM : Feb 03, 2008

-Thnx jerr11, for providing those figures. I''d assume they are more or less correct.

-1.9 Trillion spent on Iraq. Divide that amount by 5 the number of years we''ve been there. You get 400B$ /yr. This represents the current budget projected deficit. Still wondering?

-Obama will repatriate the G.I.''s from Iraq, as soon as he''s elected. Hilary will not, the Repukons will not.

[grazinggoat]

CBS News: ''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. ''

-A legislation should be adopted forcing BIG Repuke Pharma Corpos to cut on their Consumer TV Ads and less sophisticated and unneeded other pushing techniques, causing the Marketing and Administration costs to surpass both research-development and manufacturing costs, which is more than abhorrent.

- So when you guys take your blood pressure pill, water it down your throat, don''t let it settle there, it may cause your heart to stop... want to know more? here is the link. Have a good one!


http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050001&ct=1

[imamerican50]

this country is changing more and more. big shots get richer and pour get pourer. before bush leaves office hes going to make sure the next one that goes in office will have his mess. and did anyone hear the mrs.h. clinton was on the board of walmarts. hello. more money am i right. i do not vote for the reason , how many people email them or write to them on things and dont actually hear from them directly. we are nothing to them and when it come down to voting them in they want your vote. the system is in place and they could care less what people need only what they want.

[talkingham]

I get taxed out the butte on my tiny working class income while the big oil speculators and oil companies literally run wild over the economy.

You''ll never hear the media talk about the immediate and longterm financial cost of the Bush''s war in Iraq because it might taint his blood stained legacy of being asleep at the switch on 911 and then lying us all into Chaney''s neocon "dream war."

The fianncial cost of this war is staggering and the cumlative costs are NEVER mentioned in the media - the so-called liberal press as the lying Limbaugh of radio and Fox call them.

The press, conservative or liberal, is simply bought and sold like any other commodity now.

So we "win" the Iraq war- at what financial cost and what victory- the establishment of a fundamentalist Islamic state in Iraq. Great job Bushie. He has forever damaged ths nation, but republicans are more obessed with Clinton''s stains on a blue dress than the hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of lives lost in Iraq in order to establish a fundamentalist Islamic state there.

[carterarce]

The Bush apologists amaze me in their inability to admit even one mistake Bush has made. Clinton made some mistakes, as all presidents do but your stubbornness makes it obvious you know something is wrong. There has been a con perpetuated since the early seventies that democrats are tax and spend and republicans are conservative. They convinced you that social programs is where the big drain on your taxes is but in reality it''s military spending. You NEVER hear them say this. You NEVER hear them question the increase in military spending that takes place in every budget. Seriously-do the research. Look at where your federal tax dollars go. Do you know what it would be like here without the few social programs we have in place? Think about it. Both parties tax and spend. Our taxes aren''t even that high compared to other western nations. Stop complaining about taxes. you don''t have it that rough!

[homespunlady]

It''s kinda creepy when you step back and look at the whole American Fiscal Situation.
This nation is ALREADY OWNED by some VERY quiet people.
Definitely, those people are some of the MOST powerful people in the world and the PAPARAZZI IGNORE THEM!!
WHY isn''t there MORE MEDIA attention paid to THOSE people - OH - I forgot - THOSE PEOPLE OWN the MEDIA.
Guess us "average Americans" are about as CLUELESS as they come. At least Europeans KNOW they''re there behind the "curtain".

I know the Fed is a Private CORPORATION and Bernancke has been appointed it''s Chairman.
Any fool that can google can get Bushel loads of info concerning that - but it''s Weird that MOST corporations have a list of Major Shareholders and I can''t seem to find WHO OWNS the Federal Reserve.
Those people must be TRILLIONAIRES.

Are any of the Bush family and friends STOCKHOLDERS in the FED?
Is there ANY way average American CITIZENS can acquire Corporate stock in the FED?
Why is the FED a PRIVATELY held CORPORATION?

At least it EXPLAINS W''s logic.

[carterarce]

Omega: "maxify55, of course we both know and freely admit that the Clinton''''s gave us NAFTA and screwed the American worker."

Actually NAFTA was Bush Sr.''s baby. It was all but pushed through when Clinton signed it into law. The amendments Clinton made to Bush''s plan were the only concessions made to the unions and environmentalists.

Why let the truth convince you you have been scammed by these so called conservatives?

[homespunlady]

I think I''ve figured it out.

George was ANGRY that his daddy "got beat" by a Democrat that he accused of "trashing" the White house by taking the W keys off the typewriters so to SHOW those "horrible people" he "DECIDED" - remember he DID say he WAS "the decider" - that HE''D show them by leaving behind a TRASHED NATION - not just a trashed office!!!
That I''m sure he believes OUTDOES what George has been stewing on since he moved in- petty sophomoric games.
YEP, I can see George happily chuckling in the Oval Office now.
He''s muttering See I CAN outdo the Clintons I CAN - I wasn''t a drunken frat boy for nothing!

That is Pretty OBVIOUS when JUNIOR HAD to OUTDO daddy''s war.

[newsjunky5]

"That''''s exactly what Reagan and Bush did to this country, both men doubled (or MORE) the public (i.e. national) debt, and left it to future generations to ''''pay the bills''''. For this reason alone neither man should be called a ''hero''"

The deficit is borrowed money on which we pay an enormous amount of interest. This is paid to foreign and domestic banks. Allowing them this business opportunity is a favor which Bush can give and get a favor in return. The problem is that the returned favor is in private contracts, received for blowing public money. This is a bonus on top of the actual public money (borrowed from friends after running through the surplus, with interest due) also given out to friends. Do you really think $1 billion is a good price for ferrying diplomats around a war zone by Blackwater? The same mechanism worked for Reagan with the Starwars project, and Bush Sr. in harvesting the savings and loans. If any Bush lovers doubt this, God told me it''s true. (He also said He''s never spoken with Bush about anything)

[homespunlady]

Ahh..
George W. - the man that says if I can run HARKIN OIL and SELL OUT before the patsys find out I can run the country THE SAME WAY.

Paraguay here he comes.

Less than a year left and he''s STILL trying to RAKE IN as much NEOCONARTIST money for that "FOREIGN vacation home" as he can.

[omega39-2009]

omega39,
I''''ve got George W. on line 3. He wants your opinion on the NAFTA conference coming up.
Posted by maxify55

maxify55, of course we both know and freely admit that the Clinton''s gave us NAFTA and screwed the American worker. The difference between you and I though, is that your personality cult won''t let you go one step further and admit that George "fast track" Bush made things worse. Remember, that even as the Chinese were dismantling our spy plane, Bush was pushing for most favored nation trade status with them.

[crater7]

"START SPREDING THE NEWS"

NEW YORK, NEW YORK.

GIANT''S RULE, GO GIANT''S!!!!!!!!!!

ONCE AGAIN THIS PRESIDENT, AND REPUBLICAN ELITE, HAS SHOWN TOTAL LACK OF CONCERN FOR THE AMERICAN SENIORS, DISABLED, CHILDREN, AND WORKING POOR OF THIS COUNTRY.
THE REVERSE ROBIN HOOD EFFECT. TAX THE POOR GIVE TO THE RICH. REMEMBER THE ALAMO, WHEN YOU VOTE THIS NOVEMBER. IF YOU CAN AFFORD TO BUY GAS TO GET TO THE POLLS.

VOTE-VOTE-VOTE

[grumpas]

Heaven forbid he give American''s back anything! Except maybe the rich and he continues to renew their tax cut even despite the fact the country can''t afford it. And he doesn''t mention stopping either one of his expensive wars. This dillusion idiot isn''t capable of making out a budget.

[omega39-2009]

Anyone who thinks Democrats are going to balance the budget is a moron. The US has far more debt than we do income. And, it is growing daily.

Posted by tuckerndfw

Whaaaattt? Are you suggesting that an economy based on Walmart jobs really possesses nothing to trade in a free trade economy? Who would have thunk it.

[brianbwb-2009]

"China, Japan and Korea have won without firing one shot. They beat us with credit to soothe our gluttony. What are you going to do, America, when they call in the IOU''''s? They own us." Posted by maxify55

Which means that maxify55 will also be shivering in the cold, waiting for his handout from the new oriental owners.

"If they were true there would be an immediate investigation, conviction and resignation. Sit back down and reread your comics." Posted by maxify55

Bush lied. We went to "war" based on those lies. We are still there because of them. Everyone knows the crime.

If you don''t realize by now that the only thing that has stopped the impeachment, and the war crimes trials is corruption, then you are the one reading comic books.

[taotxzen]

Crime of the Century: Time for Congress to Act

Dave Lindorff

Who''s minding the store in Washington?

While President George W. Bush was standing before the members of Congress on January 28 laying out his plans, such as they are, for the final year of his second term in the White House, he was also seriously and perhaps fatally undermining the authority of Congress with a new signing statement, attached to the latest National Defense Authorization Act, in which he declared that he would simply violate or fail to comply with four provisions.

Let me say that again. The president states in writing that he is not going to obey and will not be bound by four parts of a law duly passed by the Congress.

Just so you know that we''re not talking about the naming of a bridge or a new ship, the four provisions of the act which the president is going to ignore are:

* the establishment of a commission to investigate contractor fraud in Afghanistan and Iraq

* the protection for whistleblowers who report contractor fraud from harassment or official retribution

* a requirement that U.S. intelligence agencies respond to Congressional requests for documents

* a ban on funding for any permanent military bases in Iraq, and on any actions that would seek to give the U.S. control over Iraq''s oil resources or oil
money.

Still think we are in Iraq to get the ''terist?''

[bigsk8fan]

spend and spend some more fiscal conservatives.

[slim1h2o]

Looks like the only people who can save us now is the middleclass. The rich is raping America, and the poor cannot afford to sue the country. So, what about middleclass? Are you going to join us later; or pay now!

This is outright murder of the masses!!!

Posted by mcv57 at 12:27 AM : Feb 04, 2008

Too late,,,The middle class is already poor. Or haven''t you noticed.

[ubikvalis2]

I see Bush is serious about "cutting the deficit in half in 5 years" ... Just like in 6 months we''ll know if Iraq will be doing well (1 Friedman unit), just like 6 months ago.

[burneb]

REPUBLICAN MEANS RESPONSIBILITY. That was their party slogan back when they used to argue for fiscal discipline (for the poor) and balanced budgets (for non-military).

Then they ran Goldwater for President in 1964, and I have not heard them use that slogan since.

But then Reagan used the TAX AND SPEND litany so effectively, Republicans hit on a strategy to BORROW AND BLOW IT. They get to cut taxes (vote for us!) and keep on spending (vote for us!) and our grandchildren get to pay for it (it will be those Dems fault!).

Now whenever Dems are forced by the laws of math to raise taxes or shut down government, Republicans can go back to claiming Tax & Spend is a Democratic evil. It is a clever strategy because American voters usually fall for it.