The Seattle Times : Bush's Budget May Be Tough Sell at Capitol

The Seattle Times: Nation & World: Bush's budget may be tough sell at Capitol:

With both Rice and Gonzales approved by an obedient GOP Senate, the big story of the next several months is arguably the President's proposed $2.5 trillion ($2,500,000,000,000.00) budget for fiscal year 2005-06. Specific details of the plan are hazy, and are trickling out in small increments. It behooves us to make note of them as we can.

"Bush's $2.5 trillion budget proposal would eliminate some funding for education, environmental protection and business development, while significantly increasing military and international spending, according to administration documents.

"Overall, discretionary spending other than defense and homeland security would fall by nearly 1 percent, the first time in many years that funding for the major part of the budget controlled by Congress would actually go down, according to officials with access to the budget. Discretionary spending is spending other than on entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare.

"The cuts are aimed at helping to meet Bush's goal of cutting the budget deficit in half by 2009. One out of every three of the targeted programs concerns education. Medicaid funding would be reduced significantly, and even major military-weapons programs would be scrapped to make more resources available for the war in Iraq."