Posted on 02/05/2006 8:29:44 PM PST by ncountylee
WASHINGTON - President Bush plans to propose a $2.7 trillion budget Monday that would shrink most parts of the government unrelated to national security while slowing spending on Medicare by $36 billion during the next five years, according to White House documents.
The budget that Bush is to recommend to Congress will call for eliminating or reducing 141 programs, for a savings of $14.5 billion, across a broad swath of federal agencies, according to administration and congressional officials who have had access to budget documents. Wide-ranging as they are, those cuts pale in comparison with the White House's attempt to carve money from Medicare, the first tangible result from a vow the president made in his State of the Union address last week to constrain the massive entitlement programs for the elderly and poor.
Spending for the departments of Commerce, Education, Energy and Interior would be flat or decrease.
In contrast, the president plans to recommend for the Department of Homeland Security an increase of at least 5 percent from this year's funding, $30.8 billion. The White House is also trying again to increase passengers' security fees for air travel from $2.50 per flight to $5, a proposal that Congress swiftly rejected last year.
Similarly, the budget will suggest a hike of nearly 5 percent in the Pentagon's funding for next year, defense officials said.
The $439.3 billion includes $84.2 billion for weapons systems, an 8 percent increase in weapons spending.
The effort to curb Medicare spending by $36 billion by 2011 and by $105 billion a decade from now is a sharp turnabout for the administration. Last year, Bush said the health-insurance program that covers 41 million elderly and disabled people should be spared any cuts.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Only a start. Let's help him target another couple hundred.
You are confusing cause and effect. The rooster's crowing does not make the sun rise each morning. Criticizing President Bush does not make you a Bush hater.
On the other hand, Bush-haters *will* make some rather obvious criticisms of our President. It's laughably predictable.
Energy and Education would be positive cuts.
What will he end up by the time it gets through Congress?
15 Billion?
FR is populated with a large number of blind Bushbots.
i meant to put 15 MILLION
To the Bush haters here it is damned if does damned if he doesn't. More can be done.. Baby steps folks, try to get rid of 40 plus year mentality that the government has to provide everything is a tough job.
and Bush bashing bots...
I'm not up on all the government spending, but it seems to me that there are probably ALOT of wasteful spending and stupid programs that the government funds that could be cut instead of going after the elderly first.
I suggest that we get rid of all the illegal aliens, this would save about 60 billion a year people!!
Why do I get the feeling these aren't really cuts, but increasing spending below inflation?
RNC called me the other day, and I hollered that I wanted not one more cent to go to Palestine, Lebanon, Hamas, and the UN. I want them to spend 80% of all the saved billions in IRAQ, make it a wonderland, and give the other 20% to the military families just because we love 'em.
That got the fuindraiser off really quick.
"To the Bush haters here it is damned if does damned if he doesn't. More can be done.. Baby steps folks, try to get rid of 40 plus year mentality that the government has to provide everything is a tough job."
So why is Bush just now getting on it? Prescription drug bill?
$14.5 billion of a $2.7 trillion dollar budget.
The trillion dollar Bush Medicare Prescription Drug Program is alive and well.
Thanks to Bush and the GOP Congress, big government Republicanism is alive and well.
65% of the annual Bush federal budget is spent on "Human Resources", aka. welfare entitlements.
Too little too late.
It's an election year. Maybe 5 or 10 at best -- enough so that the Dems can say they saved Medicare from the diabolical Republicans and so that the GOP can say it did something. But I'm not cynical.
Post #4 quoted you even before you typed in your response.
Please Southack, post your threadkilling G.W. devotional SPAM again.
How many hours does it take for the government to go through that much money? The study to determine which cuts to make probably cost that much.
Similarly, the budget will suggest a hike of nearly 5 percent in the Pentagon's funding for next year, defense officials said.
Let's just call these "Muslim Taxes."
The b@stards are costing us a thousand different ways in security, economics, and inconvenience.
It was your post that gave me the idea. Thanks
What no obligatory list of so-called Bush accomplishments according to Southack? You're slipping.
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