FIRST...don't talk to the CLOWN....
Second
Most of the programs on Bush's budgetary hit list are retreads
By Richard Wolf, USA TODAYFri Feb 10, 7:24 AM ET
Most of the 141 programs President Bush wants to cut or eliminate in his 2007 budget are survivors of past Bush hit lists, a list released by the White House Thursday showed.
Of 91 programs proposed for termination, all but 13 have been on the chopping block before. The 13 new programs would save the government $581 million - about 0.02% of the $2.77 trillion budget.
Including the other 50 programs that would be cut but allowed to continue, Bush wants to save $14.7 billion overall, about 0.5% of the budget. Last year, he tried to trim $15.8 billion from 154 programs; Congress agreed to cut $6.5 billion.
All of those numbers are small compared with the big ones in the budget: the skyrocketing costs of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, Bush's effort to boost spending on defense and homeland security, and the cost of making his tax cuts permanent.
The White House says the effort to cut or kill relatively small programs is important. Among the new targets is a food program for low-income women, children and seniors and an Internet-based listing of job openings.
"We've got to get away from the idea that it's OK to waste just a little money," says Scott Milburn, spokesman for the White House budget office. "When you've got a $2.77 trillion budget, a lot of little problems add up to big money."
Milburn says the White House is making headway, even if Congress doesn't go along completely. He points out that of the 78 programs Bush has again asked Congress to kill, lawmakers reduced funding last year in 33.
Budget watchdog groups want Bush to cut more. Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense says the president is focused only on domestic programs.
"They're leaving war-on-terrorism and defense spending off the table," Ashdown says. "They're basically trying to cut from around 13% to 15% of the budget. It leaves you with fewer oxes to gore."
Bush is being criticized by conservatives as too cautious in his cuts and by liberals as too brazen:
• "There is no shortage of candidates for elimination," says Brian Riedl of the conservative Heritage Foundation. "There is only the shortage of political will to make the difficult decisions."
• "Every year they propose the same drastic cuts," says Kirstin Brost, spokeswoman for Rep. David Obey (news, bio, voting record), D-Wis., top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee. "They've cut programs that help average Americans to the bone to pay for supersized tax cuts for millionaires." |
