Bush hasn't done anything even in this term. The discretionary budget is still greater than last years, and he could always veto or negotiate down the non-discretionary part with Congress. Wake me up when that happens.
Budgets ALWAYS go up, so that's no surprise. No budget has ever been less than the previous year's budget in my lifetime, so that's not even a fair expectation. The point is the tighest budget caps ever have been imposed in Bush's spending plan and 150 federal programs have been eliminated. Is it all I want? No, but this is a step in the right direction. I think we have to be willing to see bringing down the deficit isn't going to happen all at once. If we're headed in the right direction on taming budgets, then I'm willing to accept that for now as a good beginning. We have to remember that there's really no push in this country for massive budget cuts so we have to be pragmatic.