Bush's 2009 Budget Will Top $3 Trillion

[question everything]

The Wall Street Journal


Bush's 2009 Budget Will Top $3 Trillion
By JOHN D. MCKINNON
February 1, 2008; Page A3

WASHINGTON -- President Bush's budget for 2009, which will be released Monday, will total more than $3 trillion, the first time that barrier has been broken, a senior administration official said... Continuing costs of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq also factor into the projected deficits, as does another one-year change to prevent the alternative minimum tax from hitting more middle-class people.

(snip)

Mr. Bush came into office with a budget surplus, but his deep tax cuts and the global war on terrorism -- along with the effects of the 2001 recession -- combined to produce annual deficits. To get the budget back in balance, the White House plan depends in part on sharp cuts in entitlements that will be difficult to achieve in Congress this year. The budget also attempts to put a tight lid on many domestic agencies' annual spending. Without those projected savings, deficits could run even higher.

(snip)

Mr. Bush's latest budget would reduce entitlement spending overall by about $208 billion over the next five years. Medicare alone would account for $178 billion, or about 86%, of these reductions. This year's proposal is a bigger reduction than Mr. Bush has previously attempted in Medicare. Rep. Pete Stark (D., Calif.), chairman of the House health subcommittee, blasted the proposed Medicare reductions, saying they would "endanger the health care of America's seniors, people with disabilities and low-income children." He predicted the weight of the cuts would fall on hospitals and physicians. Even if the White House managed to get its proposed reductions this year, Medicare's rate of growth would still be 5%, the administration official said. That is higher than the overall inflation rate. Medicare's current rate of growth is about 7.2%, which many economists, elected leaders and businesspeople say is unsustainable over the long run, especially as baby boomers start to retire and receive benefits. The current projected unfunded obligation of Medicare over 75 years is an estimated $34 trillion. This plan would reduce it by nearly one third.

One area of spending where the administration wants a significant increase, however, is in import-safety regulation. Administration officials said the White House budget will increase the Food and Drug Administration's food protection efforts by about 7%, or $42 million, to $662 million for fiscal 2009. The funds will be used to help implement a new food-safety strategy that the administration rolled out last fall, after a wave of controversies over faulty toys, tires and pet foods, among other items, many of them from China. The new strategy depends not only on increasing inspections, but on pressing manufacturers and importers to obtain independent certifications of their products' fitness.

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URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120180556503932711.html (subscription)

[SoFlaJet]

1. What are you TALKIN' about QE? get your facts straight

it's the democrats that are out of control with spending...sheesh

[question everything]

2. And, of course, the WSJ would NEVER point out

that Bush came to a surplus and wasted it..

:mad:

[SoFlaJet]

3. You remember Idiot Boy

with his pie chart divided up into 3 parts during the 2000 campaign? "Here's 3 trillion-you get one we get one...it's YOUR money..."