Bush Seeks to Soothe Republican Worries on Budget

Reuters ^ | Sat January 31, 2004 | Caren Bohan

[demlosers]

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - President Bush vowed on Saturday to hold the line on spending as he sought to reassure members of his own party who are upset at record budget deficits.

The president told a gathering of congressional Republicans that the task of restraining spending would be a tough one in an election year when politicians are loath to cut popular programs.

"This is going to be a challenging year for making sure we spend the people's money wisely," he said.

But Bush said he wanted to send a "clear signal" to the public and to financial markets that the administration was committed to belt-tightening.

The strategy session of Republicans came just two days before Bush was set to unveil his fiscal 2005 budget. It is expected to project a record $521 billion deficit.

The budget will call for holding spending growth outside of defense and homeland security to 0.5 percent.

But some conservative Republicans worry that safeguarding security-related expenditures from the budget cap will give the White House wide latitude to propose new spending since security issues might be defined broadly within the budget.

New costs such as a White House proposal for manned expeditions to the moon and Mars have set fiscal conservatives on edge.

Further stoking concerns was an acknowledgment this week by the White House that Bush's Medicare prescription drug program would cost tens of billions more than expected.

Bush's budget will show a $530 billion cost over 10 years for the addition of a prescription drug benefit for the Medicare health program for senior citizens. That is 33 percent more than was anticipated when the Medicare overhaul was approved less than two months ago.

Bush seemed to win some goodwill with the members of his party by lingering for an hour in a private session to take questions -- longer than he has in previous years. The president was asked about both Medicare and the budget deficits.

On Medicare, Bush replied he had no regrets about pushing for the prescription drug benefit despite its price tag and said he still thought he could accomplish his goal of cutting the budget deficit in half in five years, according to a U.S. official who was there.

Another participant said that on that matter of the budget deficit, "there's a sense that we need to act."

"Some of the frustration (over the deficit) is directed at the president and some it is directed at ourselves," said the participant, who is a Republican congressional aide.

Despite griping that has been going on behind the scenes about budgetary issues, Republicans girded for the election battle with solidarity chants of "Four more years" after Bush finished his speech.

Bush has come under repeated attacks over the deficit from Democrats trying to unseat him. They blame his tax cuts for the red ink. The president faces a re-election vote in November.

Democrats said on Saturday that Bush, in his efforts to rein in deficits, was targeting programs that help the most vulnerable U.S. citizens.

"Tax cuts that pile on to the largest deficit in our history will not help those folks find jobs," Rep. Brad Miller of North Carolina said in the Democratic response to the president's Saturday radio address. "Deficits drag the economy down, increase interest rates, and leave a staggering debt for our children to pay."

Bush in his own radio address earlier urged Congress to bring back now-expired rules that forbid increases in spending unless they are paid for elsewhere within the budget.

[dirtboy]

The Bush Administration is starting to hear the noise from its right flank. I propose we make even more of a racket.

[annyokie]

3.4% of GDP, by my reading. Who cares, not me. I'd rather have a small deficit than a large surplus. Surplus means we are getting charged too much.

[Austin Willard Wright]

The Bush administration is playing the Republican right for suckers.....although one wonders why is even bothering. He knows that they will line up like lemmings in November.

[HostileTerritory]

A $521 billion deficit dwarfs any surplus we've known in recent years, both in absolute and relative-to-GDP terms. I don't see how you can call this small and $180 billion a "large" surplus.

[Cicero]

He's not as big a spender as the media have made him out to be. He has had the bad luck to come into office just after the clinton bubble popped, and the economy was already tanking with the usual decrease in tax receipts.

But some of this spending, and the refusal to veto any spending bills, is simply bad politics. It not only rightly offends conservatives, but it give the liberal media ammunition to attack his tax cuts, which I believe most of us support. Democrats don't give him credit for spending on their favorite programs like AIDS and federal education aid. Far from it. He actually gets in trouble not only with conservatives but all the way across the board.

He should definitely can those idiotic proposals to increase spending on AIDS and the NEA, and start cutting back on some of the liberals' favorite programs like HUD and the Department of Education.

[John Beresford Tipton]

"President Bush vowed on Saturday"

"President Bush spent like a sailor on Monday"

Bush spokesman acknowledged "He had his fingery things crossed."

[HostileTerritory]

GDP in 2003 is 11 trillion dollars. It's not going to go up to more than 11.5 trillion dollars in 2004. Run $521 billion as a percentage of that and tell me what you "read."

[annyokie]

I never said your number for the surplus was large. The deficit isn't anything to get one's knicker's in a twist about, however.

The wheels are in motion to slash it by half. Too many here are seeing the race and not the prize.

[explodingspleen]

Well, if you're talking about the trade deficit, then that is supposed to fluxuate. *Someone* always has to have a surplus. And someone else must always have a deficit. Ideally, you alternate between having a surplus and a deficit, never going to far one way or the other. Unfortunately, at present we only seem to be increasing our deficit.

I think though, that the statisitic refers to the national debt, much of which we "owe" ourselves (think government bonds and whatnot).

[Sabertooth]

Bush's budget will show a $530 billion cost over 10 years for the addition of a prescription drug benefit for the Medicare health program for senior citizens. That is 33 percent more than was anticipated when the Medicare overhaul was approved less than two months ago.

Hilarious.

Who could have known?

[TheEaglehasLanded]

If he wants to soothe things, he needs to look at Clinton's last budget and add reasonable increases, not start with this porked up budget last year and add to it.

[Warren_Piece]

You win. I'll vote for a democrat.

[NeoCaveman]

Hilarious.
Who could have known?

Uhhh. Didn't we tell them so.

[Batrachian]

"This is going to be a challenging year for making sure we spend the people's money wisely"

Thank you, Mr. President. Now, will someone please tell me how you can spend $2.3 trillion wisely? How much of that simply disappears through fraud, waste, and abuse? I have read that for every dollar the government spends, $.76 goes to administrative costs.

They're spending too much friggin' money! The difference between the government and a drunken sailor is that the sailor is spending his own money, and he spends it on worthwhile things like liquor and whores. Not so the government. I've had it!

[winker]

Veterans deserve a "BONE" in the Budget!

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

What?! A deficit means we are being charged too much too! We are spending money like a drunken sailor.

[Lancey Howard]

Deficit, shmeficit.
I don't care if Bush spends like a drunken Democrat sailor as long as he keeps cutting my taxes.
He has already done that, and he has my vote locked up.