Dubya to Cut Aid to Farmers & Students

[vinnieponte]

Good ol' dubya is at it again. His focus ont he war is now going further and further away from reality. He wants to put so much money into this, that we're cutting aid from our "future" that being our students of america and our farmers whom contiune to hurt year after year. Way to go bush, take all the money you need to kill, good job!


Deficit Puts Pressure on Bush's Budget

1 hour, 23 minutes ago White House - AP


By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - President Bush
wants Congress to slow defense growth and slice aid to farmers and college students, testaments to the pressures record federal deficits are heaping on his forthcoming budget.

Bush plans to send his roughly $2.5 trillion spending plan for 2006 to lawmakers Monday. But as details leaked out, it was clear that even the Pentagon — a bipartisan priority at a time of war — was going to face some restraints, at least for now.


"This budget will really worry about" deficits, Bush told a crowd Friday in Omaha, Neb., as he rallied support for his Social Security overhaul. "And I'm looking forward to working with members of Congress to make tough choices."


The president wants the Pentagon to get $419.3 billion next year, or 4.8 percent more than this year. That total, however, is $3.4 billion below what he planned a year ago for fiscal 2006, which begins Oct. 1.


The figures exclude expenditures for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A few days after sending Congress his budget, Bush plans to ask for another $80 billion for those conflicts for this year. Congress has already provided $25 billion for the wars for 2005.


Feeling much of the pinch in 2006 would be Pentagon purchases of weapons and other major items. Bush would hold such spending next year to $78 billion — $2.4 billion less than he projected for 2006 a year ago.


Weapons systems that would get less next year than in 2005 include the Aegis destroyer, the F-22 Raptor fighter and the C-17 cargo plane. The Apache helicopter and the Army's future combat system would see increases.


More than half the Pentagon's $19.2 billion increase next year — or $10.8 billion — would be for training, maintenance and other costs associated with keeping the military ready for action. Most of the rest would go for military salaries and construction of bases and housing.


In the longer run, Bush envisions defense spending growing steadily after next year, hitting $502.3 billion by 2011.


Also Friday, several federal officials speaking on condition of anonymity said Bush will:


_Seek about $650 million for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste-storage project north of Las Vegas, or about half what once was envisioned for 2006. Though Bush and Congress approved the project in 2002, opposition has continued and a federal court has rejected proposed radiation safety standards. New standards are being developed.


_Propose slicing farmers' federal payments and other agriculture supports by $587 million in 2006 and $5.7 billion over the next decade. Payments to producers would drop by 5 percent, and the current $360,000 annual ceiling on those payments would be cut to $250,000.


_Move to raise the maximum Pell Grant for students from $4,050 to $4,550 over five years, or by $100 a year. Along with other changes, Bush's financial aid plan would cost about $28 billion over 10 years.


To help pay for it, the president would shrink subsidies the government pays banks to encourage them to make low-interest loans, and to the agencies that insure the loans for the lenders, education department officials said. He would also phase out Perkins loans, 673,000 of which were made to graduate and undergraduate students last year.


_Create $3,000 tax credits to encourage people who don't have public or employer-provided health insurance to buy coverage. The plan, which would cost $74 billion over the next decade, would be part of $140 billion in tax breaks and expenditures aimed at improving health care over the coming 10 years.


Administration officials had already said Bush will seek $60 billion in Medicaid savings over the coming decade. These will come largely from smaller reimbursements to pharmacies, trimming payments to other health providers, and making it harder for parents to qualify for coverage if their assets have been shifted to their children.


___

[dude1394]

We should take vinnie's advice. Disband the military, then we would have lot's of bucks to give the socialists as well as not be such a bully in the world.

[FishForLunch]

Yes the blind will see, the cripple will walk.

[vinnieponte]

Honestly guys, do you think that we should spend billions & billions on a war in which we have no basis for starting to begin with. Ok I understand were in the middle and we can't just back out a.s.a.p, I will admit that. But can we keep spending billions, when we need so much more for more important things here in America?

[dude1394]

We need to finish what we started. It will transform the middle east, much like eastern europe was transformed. Of course I believe in the strategic importance of this endeavor and you do not, okay, I understand but do not agree.

[Murphy3]

Originally posted by: vinnieponte
Honestly guys, do you think that we should spend billions & billions on a war in which we have no basis for starting to begin with. Ok I understand were in the middle and we can't just back out a.s.a.p, I will admit that. But can we keep spending billions, when we need so much more for more important things here in America?

No, I don't think the U.S. should spend billions in a war in which there was no basis to get into. Fortunately, the U.S. isn't in a war such as that. But in your hypothetical, I can see why you'd be upset. Just let me know when the U.S. gets involved in such a war and I'll get back to you.

[Drbio]

Originally posted by: Murphy3

No, I don't think the U.S. should spend billions in a war in which there was no basis to get into. Fortunately, the U.S. isn't in a war such as that. But in your hypothetical, I can see why you'd be upset. Just let me know when the U.S. gets involved in such a war and I'll get back to you.

Exactly.

[jacktruth]

Finally, somebody that is willing to slice up government subsidies! Why should the government fund businesses that don't make a profit? It kills the world economy and drives up consumer prices.

[Mavdog]

Reducing the amount of corporate welfare- and that truly is what the farm supports are- should be done.
Reducing the amount of monies going to educate our youth, or to provide medical services to the lower income families, is not where reductions should be made.
The big question is why is the costs of Iraq not being included? Does the WH not want this figure to be well known, like they can keep the costs hidden?
The term "hoax" is appropriate, calling this "a lean budget" is laughable. A "lean budget" would at the least be a balanced one.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Bush Sends Congress $2.57 Trillion Budget

21 minutes ago

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) sent Congress a $2.57 trillion budget plan Monday that would boost spending on the military and homeland security but seeks spending cuts across a wide swath of other government programs. Bush's budget would reduce subsidies paid to farmers, cut health payments for poor people and veterans and trim spending on the environment and education.

"It is a budget that sets priorities," Bush said after a meeting with his Cabinet. "It's a budget that reduces and eliminates redundancy. It's a budget that's a lean budget."

Bush acknowledged that it would be difficult to eliminate popular programs but he said programs must prove their worth. "I look forward to explaining to the American people why we made some of the requests that we made in our budget," the president told reporters.

Democrats immediately branded the budget a "hoax" because it left out the huge future costs for the war in Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites) and did not include the billions of dollars that will be needed for Bush's No. 1 domestic priority, overhauling Social Security (news - web sites).

The budget — the most austere of Bush's presidency — would eliminate or vastly scale back 150 government programs. It will spark months of contentious debate in Congress, where lawmakers will fight to protect their favored programs.

House Democratic Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) of California called Bush's budget "a hoax on the American people. The two issues that dominated the president's State of the Union address — Iraq and Social Security — are nowhere to be found in this budget."

Bush's budget does not reflect the costs for his No. 1 domestic priority, overhauling Social Security by allowing younger workers to set up private investment accounts. Aides said since the plan is still being developed, accurate cost estimates could not be made.

The budget also does not include any new spending for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The administration has said it will seek in coming weeks an additional $80 billion for the cost of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for this year.

The spending document projects that the deficit will hit a record $427 billion this year, the third straight year that the red ink in dollar terms has set a record. Bush projects that the deficit will fall to $390 billion in 2006 and gradually decline to $233 billion in 2009 and $207 billion in 2010.

Bush's 2006 spending plan, for the budget year that begins next Oct. 1, counts on a healthy economy to boost revenues by 6.1 percent to $2.18 trillion. Spending, meanwhile, would grow by 3.5 percent to $2.57 trillion.

However, outside defense, homeland security and the government's huge mandatory programs such as Social Security, Bush proposes cutting spending by 0.5 percent, the first such proposed cut since the Reagan administration battled with its own soaring deficits.

Of 23 major government agencies, 12 would see their budget authority reduced next year, including cuts of 9.6 percent at Agriculture, 5.6 percent at the Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites), 6.7 percent at Transportation and 11.5 percent at Housing and Urban Development.

In his budget message to Congress, Bush said, "In order to sustain our economic expansion, we must continue pro-growth policies and enforce even greater spending restraint across the federal government."

But Democrats complained that Bush was resorting to draconian cuts that would hurt the needy in order to protect his first term tax cuts that primarily benefited the wealthy.

"This budget is part of the Republican plan to cut Social Security benefits while handing out lavish tax breaks for multimillionaires," said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "Its cuts in veterans programs, health care and education reflect the wrong priorities and its huge deficits are fiscally irresponsible."

Critics also contend that the five-year deficit projections also mask the costs of some Bush initiatives such as making his first-term tax cuts permanent, the bulk of which do not show up until after 2010. The budget puts the 10-year cost of making the president's tax cut proposals permanent at $1.29 trillion.

Bush's budget proposed increasing military spending by 4.8 percent to $419.3 billion in 2006. However, even with the increase a number of major weapons programs, including Bush's missile defense system and the B-2 stealth bomber, would see cuts from this year's levels.

Aside from defense and homeland security, favored Bush programs included a new $1.5 billion high school performance program, expanded Pell Grants for low-income college students and more support for community health clinics.

One of the most politically sensitive targets on Bush's hit list is the government support program for farmers, which he wants to trim by $5.7 billion over the next decade, which would represent cuts to farmers growing a wide range of cuts from cotton and rice to corn, soybeans and wheat.

Overall, the administration projected saving $8.2 billion in agriculture programs over the next decade including trimming food stamp payments to the poor by $1.1 billion.

Other programs set for cuts include the Army Corps of Engineers, whose dam and other waterway projects are extremely popular in Congress; the Energy Department; several health programs under the Health and Human Services (news - web sites) Department and federal subsidies for the Amtrak passenger railroad.

About one-third of the programs being targeted for elimination are in the Education Department, including federal grant programs for local schools in such areas as vocational education, anti-drug efforts and Even Start, a $225 million literacy program.

In all, the president proposed savings of $137 billion over 10 years in mandatory programs with much of that occurring in reductions in Medicaid, the big federal-state program that provides health care for the poor, and in payments the Veterans Administration makes for health care. The administration proposed no savings for Medicare, the giant health care program for the elderly.

Many of the spending cuts in the budget are repeats of efforts the administration has proposed and Congress has rejected previously.

[FishForLunch]

I guess the libs did not hear raise the Taxes so they whine and moan.

[dude1394]

I think the only guvment cut that the leftists have ever liked is the one that starts and ends with the military.

[Epitome22]

Theres nothing wrong with Bush retracting the lavish farm subsidies he himself put into place. Not surprised about the cuts to education though. If Bush will roll back all the tariffs he's put into place to appease his special interests it migt make up for it though.

[#1MavsFan]

Let's cut aid to farmers so they have to higher their prices to make a profit and thus have inflation rise! Lets also cut aid to students, our future doesn't matter. Also lets spend a lot more on defense and give bigger tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires! So in theory we're cutting things that weren't a huge part of the budget but increasing things like defense rapidly. Really looks like we'll be out of this huge deficit soon. Sounds like another Bush success story!