Bush is serious. Yes, very serious about freezing spending. An entire sixth of the budget will be frozen. The check book is still open for war toys, SS, and that secret project to develop a machine to perform the heimlich maneuver by pushing a red button on your chest. Pretzels are still a threat.
Sounds like a bunch of "strong dollar" bs to me.
GT
TH
Bush expected to seek near-freeze in spending
Thu Jan 6, 2005 07:23 PM ET
WASHINGTON, Jan 6 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush is expected to propose what amounts to a freeze in spending in programs outside national security in a bid to show he is serious about meeting his goal to reduce the deficit, congressional aides and budget experts said on Thursday.
White House officials said final decisions on Bush's fiscal 2006 budget have yet to be made. They said those decisions would determine the budget numbers.
Congressional aides and budget experts said the White House intends to hold non-defense, non-homeland security discretionary spending within a narrow range that amounts to a freeze in spending, or a cut when inflation is factored in.
Depending on the outcome of White House deliberations, Bush could propose a slight cut from current spending levels to an increase of less than 0.8 percent -- the amount approved last year, they said.
With the White House projecting inflation at around 2 percent, government programs subject to the new cap would face the budgetary equivalent of a cut in spending from levels enacted in fiscal 2005.
Bush will send his new budget to Congress next month, and hopes to highlight spending restraint before pushing ahead with plans to add personal investment accounts to the Social Security retirement system. He could be forced to borrow $1 trillion or more to finance the transition.
But the cap would only affect about one-sixth of all federal spending, budget analysts said. Discretionary spending does not include automatic payments like Social Security and Medicare.
The belt-tightening will, however, extend to the Pentagon and homeland security.
A Pentagon budget plan calls for reducing previously budgeted weapons purchases by $6 billion in fiscal 2006, which begins Oct. 1, and by nearly $30 billion through 2011.
"It's going to be a tight budget," said White House Office of Management and Budget spokesman Chad Kolton, who declined to discuss specific figures.
Bush has vowed to cut the record federal budget deficit in half by 2009, a goal Democrats and some Republican lawmakers are skeptical he can meet.
Bush's budget will not include the skyrocketing cost of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead he will submit a supplemental budget request in February or March totaling between $80 billion and $100 billion, congressional aides said.
yahoo.reuters.com |
