posted on February 5, 2007 08:36:48 AM new
....PAY FOR THIS ?
I know! Let's CUT TAXES!!!! And then we GROW the money on trees !!!
Bush Sends Congress $2.90T Spending Plan
Updated 11:12 AM ET February 5, 2007
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush sent a $2.9 trillion spending plan to a Democratic-controlled Congress on Monday, proposing to spend billions more to fight the war in Iraq while squeezing the rest of government to meet his goal of eliminating the deficit in five years.
Bush's spending plan would make his first-term tax cuts permanent, at a cost of $1.6 trillion over 10 years. He is seeking $78 billion in savings in the government's big health care programs _ Medicare and Medicaid _ over the next five years.
Release of the budget in four massive volumes kicks off months of debate in which Democrats, now in control of both the House and Senate for the first time in Bush's presidency, made clear that they have significantly different views on spending and taxes.
"The president's budget is filled with debt and deception, disconnected from reality and continues to move America in the wrong direction," said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D.
House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt, D-S.C., said, "I doubt that Democrats will support this budget, and frankly, I will be surprised if Republicans rally around it either."
The president insisted that he had made the right choices to keep the nation secure from terrorist threats and the economy growing.
"My formula for a balanced budget reflects the priorities of our country at this moment in its history: protecting the homeland and fighting terrorism, keeping the economy strong with low taxes and keeping spending under control while making federal programs more effective," Bush said.
Just as Iraq has come to dominate Bush's presidency, military spending was a major element in the president's new spending request. Bush was seeking a Pentagon budget of $624.6 billion for 2008, more than one-fifth of the total budget, up from $600.3 billion in 2007.
For the first time, the Pentagon included details for the upcoming budget year on how much the Iraq war would cost _ an estimated $141.7 billion for fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the cost of repairing and replacing equipment lost in combat. But White House spokesman Tony Fratto cautioned that the 2008 projection was likely to change. "We're not saying the number for '08 is the final number," Fratto told reporters. "We don't know that right now."
Bush projected a deficit in the current year of $244 billion, just slightly lower than last year's $248 billion imbalance. For 2008, the budget year that begins next Oct. 1, Bush sees another slight decline in the deficit to $239 billion. He sees that decline continuing over the next three years until the budget records a surplus of $61 billion in 2012, three years after Bush has left office.
Are YOU a Bunghole?