WASHINGTON — President Bush's 2005 budget proposal estimates that his Medicare bill will cost one-third more than the $400 billion the White House promised, and predicts the largest deficit ever in dollar terms, congressional aides said Thursday. Bush will send the budget for the 2005 fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1, 2004, to Congress on Monday, barely a week after wrapping up the 2004 budget fight. The president now estimates that the just-enacted prescription-drug program and Medicare overhaul will cost about $540 billion, and that this year's budget deficit will be about $520 billion, congressional sources told The Associated Press....
