Posted on 01/06/2005 5:35:35 PM PST by The Teen Conservative
WASHINGTON, Jan 6 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush is expected to propose what amounts to a freeze in spending in programs outside national security in a bid to show he is serious about meeting his goal to reduce the deficit, congressional aides and budget experts said on Thursday. White House officials said final decisions on Bush's fiscal 2006 budget have yet to be made. They said those decisions would determine the budget numbers.
Congressional aides and budget experts said the White House intends to hold non-defense, non-homeland security discretionary spending within a narrow range that amounts to a freeze in spending, or a cut when inflation is factored in.
Depending on the outcome of White House deliberations, Bush could propose a slight cut from current spending levels to an increase of less than 0.8 percent -- the amount approved last year, they said.
With the White House projecting inflation at around 2 percent, government programs subject to the new cap would face the budgetary equivalent of a cut in spending from levels enacted in fiscal 2005.
Bush will send his new budget to Congress next month, and hopes to highlight spending restraint before pushing ahead with plans to add personal investment accounts to the Social Security retirement system. He could be forced to borrow $1 trillion or more to finance the transition.
But the cap would only affect about one-sixth of all federal spending, budget analysts said. Discretionary spending does not include automatic payments like Social Security and Medicare.
The belt-tightening will, however, extend to the Pentagon and homeland security.
A Pentagon budget plan calls for reducing previously budgeted weapons purchases by $6 billion in fiscal 2006, which begins Oct. 1, and by nearly $30 billion through 2011.
"It's going to be a tight budget," said White House Office of Management and Budget spokesman Chad Kolton, who declined to discuss specific figures.
Bush has vowed to cut the record federal budget deficit in half by 2009, a goal Democrats and some Republican lawmakers are skeptical he can meet.
Bush's budget will not include the skyrocketing cost of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead he will submit a supplemental budget request in February or March totaling between $80 billion and $100 billion, congressional aides said.
An increase is a cut garbage from the lefties at reuters...
I'm not quite sure how this fits in with the concept of a "near-freeze" in spending.
Take every agency, every department, every unit back to
zero-base budgeting. As it is, they spend every penny
just before the end of the fiscal year, then add an automatic
10% to whatever prior year budget was approved.
Make them justify the programs. Otherwise, I'm with the
freeze (and since I get some revenue from the FEDS, this is
my way of helping cut the budget).
A lot of uppity Congressmen will start having second thoughts about crossing the White House if pork looks like it's getting scarce. The folks back home can't take grandiose speeches to the bank.
Liberal Dictionary: A "cut" in a government program (usually a liberal pet program) is a smaller rate of increase than they believe should be spent on said program.
Oh please, not that 'trillion dollar pricetag" garbage. That's mostly the amount that will be removed from the system and put into the new system--they make it sound like the price tag for the changeover will be one trillion. What bull.
I would also rename the Department of Defence back to the Department of War.
Then I would start whacking other Departments.
Take the savings from non-performing departments, and fund the military to the max, continue to cut taxes, fuel the economy, and begin a long descencion in eliminating the national debt.
Roll CDC under Homeland Security and chop HHS.
Roll the nuke programs under DOD and get rid of the Department of Energy.
Just whack the Departments of Education, Housing... heck just whack everything except Justice, Defense, Homeland Security, State, Interior and Transportation
Which leaves lots of room for Enron-like account shuffling. The crooks have done it before and they'll do it again.
The whole idea that five sixths of the federal budget is untouchable is abhorrent.
The last time I looked, we are at WAR.There are a few important folks in Washington, DC who have mentioned the word, "war." W, Cheney, and all of W's Cabinet Memebers.
Some should read some historical novels on great combat commanders and ask them how they would fight battles, and winning a war.
Being in the defence mode of thought invites the bullies to beat the snot out of the 'little' guy.
I do not believe in asking my enemies for permission to go pee, when I'm shoving a bayonett in my enemy's chest.
War is "a state of open, armed, often prolonged conflict carried on between nations, states, or parties."
We are not always at war. However just because we are not in a war does not mean that we should not have a defense.
So I prefer the new name only because it includes more then the former name did.
That is the welfare state, and not only is it untouchable but it actually expanded in the last Congress. I predict it will increasingly crowd out defense, the entire Mars mission and many other federal activities.
How about a Kyoto Treaty of Spending?
Roll back government spending across the board (other than military) to what it was in the 1990s -- just like the Kyoto fans want to do with energy.
Let's talk about sustainable government.
I'll believe it when I see it. Bush hasn't met a spending bill he didn't like.
I would roll CDC into HHS and eliminate Homeland Security altogether. ELiminate Education, Labor, Energy.
Trivia question, when was the Department of War originated, and when was the name changed to 'Department of Defense'?
BTW, you may want to read some biographies about our famous military generals. In battle, they did not defend, they killed the enemy shooting at Americans. They did not sit down for tea as the UN would like to have us do. We killed our enemies.
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