White House Data Suggest Deep Spending Cuts are Needed

George “LBJ” Bush has said for months that he wants to cut the federal budget deficit in half by the time he leaves office. That seems lacking in ambition for a man who came into office sitting on a twelve-digit surplus. However, a White House printout obtained by the Washington Post says halving the deficit will require years of spending reductions.

The Post says “Historically, presidential budgets have detailed financing for every federal program -- including entitlement programs and programs funded at Congress's discretion -- for each of the years in the budget's five- or 10-year window. Bush's budget specifies funding levels for mandatory programs, the cost to the Treasury of his tax proposals, overall spending and the projected deficits for each of the next five years. But it does not give details for discretionary programs beyond the 2007 budget.” In other words, the current budget request is bait-and-switch marketing.

In fairness to the White House, Scott Milburn over at the White House budget office said quite correctly, “We request funding for our policies one year at a time and submit those requests via the president's budget. There aren’t other official documents that reflect the administration’s policies.” It’s the unofficial scratch-paper scribblings that carry the bad news here.

For example, Mr. Bush is asking for more money in 2007 for the Women, Infants and Children's nutrition program, the Home Investment Partnerships program homeless assistance grants, the US Marshals Service and the Peace Corps. These all then see their appropriations fall in 2008 and thereafter. Student financial assistance would drop from $19.2 billion this year to $13.7 billion in 2010.

Of course, reducing spending is only one way to reduce the budget; higher tax collection could also help. Here, though ideology trumps sound economics as Mr. Bush refuses to put taxes back where they were when he came into office. He wants to make his tax cuts “permanent” as if he could, somehow, bind future presidents and future congresses to the current rates.

Of course, this is all a load of nonsense until and unless the one big spending program Mr. Bush has enacted gets put into the budget – the war in Iraq. This isn’t counted in the budget, but that doesn’t matter when it comes time for the US Treasury to pay the bills. The real deficit under Mr. Bush is not the $423 billion projected for this year. It is $423 billion plus the cost of the war; thus far, the White House has requested $120 billion in 2006. The total may be as much as $2 trillion before victory is declared and Johnny comes marching home.

The Danish flag appears here as a protest against the violence being done to the free press of that country and elsewhere by those offended by some cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed, peace be unto him. A perceived insult is not an excuse for intimidation and violence, even in the name of the Creator. One cannot insult God, only small-minded men who falsely claim to speak for Him. © Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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