White House Budget Projections Suggest Pain (for non-rich)

[papau]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/11/politics/11spend.html?

February 11, 2005
NEWS ANALYSIS
White House Budget Projections Suggest Pain, Much of It Political
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

ASHINGTON, Feb. 10 - President Bush faces almost impossible political choices if he is to keep his pledge to reduce spending over the next five years.

Unpublished budget projections prepared by the White House make it clear that Mr. Bush cannot reach his budget goals without making deep cuts in programs that have strong political support, including veterans' medical care, education, scientific research and nutritional assistance for impoverished mothers and small children.

White House officials say the projections do not imply any policy decisions for spending after 2006, and are merely numbers "spit out by the computer." But those numbers vividly show the kind of cuts that will be necessary if the president, as he has promised, reduces domestic discretionary spending in 2006 and then freezes it for the next four years.

The projections show that discretionary spending, adjusted for inflation, would drop by 16 percent, or $65 billion a year, through 2010.

Mr. Bush, who proposed cutting or eliminating scores of domestic programs in the budget he introduced this week, did not put forth any specific cuts then beyond 2006. But the White House projections define a path to keeping spending flat through 2010:

* Spending on veterans' medical care would drop 16 percent after inflation, despite an expected surge in costs from veterans of the war in Iraq.

* Education and vocational training, an area that grew rapidly during Mr. Bush's first term, would decline 15 percent.

* Basic scientific research would be reduced 13 percent.

* Nutritional assistance for impoverished mothers and their small children, provided through the Women, Infants and Children program, would be cut by 9.6 percent; some 740,000 fewer people would receive assistance.<snip>

....domestic discretionary programs, which account for about $391 billion of $2.3 trillion in total spending this year, to absorb the cuts.....General scientific research, though, would decline by 12.9 percent after inflation....To keep overall spending flat from 2007 through 2010, the budget projections would cut spending on veterans' medical care by 16 percent after inflation, about $5.3 billion below what the White House estimates would be necessary to maintain activity at current levels. <snip>

But the projections already envision cuts after inflation of $13 billion in education, $8 billion in health care, $2.8 billion in criminal justice assistance and $3 billion in housing assistance.
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