2006 Budget a "Strong Step," Says Heritage Foundation

[TexasLawyer]

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/wm659.cfm

President’s Budget A Solid Step To Rein in Spending
by Brian M. Riedl
WebMemo #659

February 8, 2005


President Bush’s fiscal year 2006 budget proposal is a strong step towards getting the budget back under control. Budgets are about setting priorities, and President Bush prioritizes national security by providing the Defense Department with a 4 percent budget increase, while saving $20 billion by eliminating or vastly reducing nearly 150 outdated and wasteful programs. The President’s next step should be to demand that Congress work within this budget framework or face vetoes on excess spending.

Click here for a summary of the President's FY 2006 budget proposal.

Positives

Freezing non-defense discretionary spending. The President’s budget holds non-defense discretionary even with last year in order to fund priorities like defense and homeland security. Tough decisions are necessary in order to rein in spending growth, and establishing budget priorities is a necessary component. Trade-offs must be made in this process, and non-priority programs should not receive additional budget increases. So President Bush proposes freezing this portion of the budget in 2006. Money saved from failed programs will fund spending increases for worthy programs.

Eliminating or strongly reducing nearly 150 programs. Washington has been running many of the same outdated and wasteful programs for decades. It is time for lawmakers to modernize the budget and close down outdated agencies that consume tax dollars while providing few benefits. A case in point is the Advanced Technology Program (ATP), which has lavished hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies on wealthy Fortune 500 companies. President Bush is wise to call for eliminating ATP and similarly unnecessary programs.

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Challenges

Medicare. Medicare spending is projected by leap $91 billion over the next two next years, from $290 billion to $381 billion. Such large increases, which chiefly result from the new Medicare drug benefit, are unsustainable. A positive first reform would be replacing the Medicare drug benefit with the drug discount card that is currently in place until 2006. This discount drug would assist needy seniors at a small fraction of the current drug benefit’s cost.<2>

Other entitlement costs. It will be nearly impossible to constrain future spending and trim the deficit unless entitlement spending is streamlined. While the fiscal year 2006 budget provides a strong second step by calling for the elimination of small, outdated programs, this momentum must be followed by reforms to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

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[whistle]

1. Heritage Foundation is bullsh*t, they are a rethug propoganda...

...machine who use junk science and slight of hand tricks to make their points. The 2006 budget is a total scam! It hides much more than it shows and has tens of billions in "supplemental" spending. What the hell is "supplemental" spending. There is no such term in budgetary accounting. The repukes just made that concept up! There are actual budgeted commitments which will be implemented and must be covered by revenues and there are contingency commitments which must be provided for with revenues in case they are needed. The horse shit about supplementary, is a non-practice in budgeting.

Look at your personal budget. You provide for food, shelter, clothing, utilities, etc because you know these will be required. You set aside money for contingency expenditures like a new roof on the house, replace the washer and dryer, etc. You plan for a way to pay for those in case they are needed. But I can't think of a single supplemental item that would go on a personal household budget, unless it is a $500 hooker on a business trip, that I don't want my spouse to know about!.....bingo, that's it. Bush's supplemental $80billion for the Iraq war is like an orgy of spending, no revenues to cover them, so they waste it on the war and find some other program in the budget to pay for it. The Bush's Federal Budget is for supplemental whoring!

[gumby]

2. Of course the Heritage Foundation would love

Bush's "budget".... they're a bunch of fascists.

Whatever eliminates the "undeserving" and passes the spoils to the "deserving" is right up their Nazi alley.

The Heritage Foundation is on a lower level of consciousness than a bunch of puss running out a dead dog's eye.