AP: (President) Bush proposes cuts to scores of programs

San Diego Union -Tribune ^ | 2/6/05 | Martin Crutsinger - AP

[GeronL]

A 2% is a 'steep cut'

[GeronL]

A 2% INCREASE is a 'steep cut'

[mainepatsfan]

Is it an actual cut or a reduction in the rate of growth?

[mlc9852]

Can't you just hear the dems now? Starving women and children, yet they will bleat about the horrible deficit and blame his tax cut "for the one percent" for it. I just hope he stands up to them.

[bahblahbah]

Well he'd better do more than cut the rate of growth if he wants to stand up to the dems. This spending is ridiculous and we're bankrupting ourselves with our socialist spending and tax cuts. Something has to give, either he reduces spending or dems will eventually get their chance to raise taxes.

[mlc9852]

Yep, but you know how it works with the pork - and it is understandable to a point. No elected official wants his/her state to suffer with the cuts. Maybe an across-the-board percentage reduction would be possible. Going to be a tough fight, though.

[LauraleeBraswell]

You know what

IT'S ABOUT TIME somebody did something, This man is looking to actually change things.

[taxesareforever]

He could really make a cut by eliminating the payments to the U.N.

[Darkwolf377]

Translation: You have to do something about this ballooning budget, and whatever you do we will bitch about it, including doing nothing.

[Darkwolf377]

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., praised the administration's willingness to tackle the deficit. "I'm glad the president is coming over with a very austere budget. I hope we in Congress will have the courage to support it," he told ABC's "This Week."

Holy cow, a moment of unqualitifed support from McCain????? Turn up the thermostat in Hell!

[eleni121]

About time...I knew this was coming eventually .

Gotta love Dubya!

[rmmcdaniell]

Nobody is going to take Bush seriously until he veto's something. Every year Bush likes to talk tough about controlling the budget, but he just rubber-stamps every lard soaked bill that comes his way.

[sam_whiskey]

"There is really no way out of the bind we are in now without some kind of increase in taxes," said Robert Reischauer, the president of the Urban Institute and a former head of the Congressional Budget Office."


Folks like this fella have an almost pathological desire to raise taxes...

[sphinx]

Those payments go to farmers growing a wide range of crops from cotton, rice and corn to soybeans and wheat.

"A wide range" is a little misleading. Virtually all the payments go to the five crops listed: corn, wheat, soybeans, cotton and rice. Some 240 other agricultural commodities are grown perfectly well in a free market. There's no reason the subsidy hogs can't do likewise, but selling affected farmers on the idea requires a paradigm shift.

[Non-Sequitur]

A 2% INCREASE is a 'steep cut'

Well you have to put it in perspective. Foreign aid is going up over 10% and I think that aid to the Palestinians is up 700%.

[CyberAnt]

And .. the group screaming the loudest will be the same group who were screaming already because Bush was SPENDING TOO MUCH - LOOK AT THE DEFICIT - SPENDING LIKE A DRUNKEN SAILOR.

Hmmmmm? What changed their minds now that the President has decided to keep INCREASES below the cost of living increases ..?? Their pet projects are being targeted and they don't like it.

[RWR8189]

The five-year projections in the budget will show the deficit declining to about $230 billion in 2009, when a new president takes office.

If that's true, then the federal deficit would only encompass about 1.8% of GDP. 

Right now we're at about 4% of GDP, and realistically a deficit that is only 1.8% of GDP is sustainable and not really that threatening to economic growth.

[dr_who_2]

Geeze, you'd think the AP would do a bit more than go with the usual "he said she said" rubbish. Maybe say "Bush seeks to drastically slash domestic programs to support war and deficit-expanding tax cuts", etc. Where's the "Contract on America" huffing and puffing? These MSM goofballs have lost their mojo.

[Imaverygooddriver]

As well as that, hope he cuts these things you always hear about "$100,000 to study if water is wet" and all these other ridiculous studies.