[OldFriend]

Clearly you know nothing about budgeting if you think any President can simply remove the mandatory spending dollars at his/her whim.

Long term commitments have been made, pensions, etc. and could not possibly be removed.

[Dont_Tread_On_Me_888]

Clearly you know nothing about budgeting if you think any President can simply remove the mandatory spending dollars at his/her whim.

I never stated that or indicated that. What I said was, by example, POTUS can set the tone and example. If George Bush is asking Congress for new entitlement programs (which he has done) and President Bush submits budgets that has spending increases at gigantic rates of increase for useless and overlapping and redundant agencies (which he has done), then that sets a bad tone and a very poor example for Congress, especially if he wants to work with Congress to reign in mandatory spending. I have also stated that Bush has not made this a priority in his major speeches, which has also set a poor example.