President George Bush on Monday proposed more than $700-billion in new spending for the United States military — much of it for the Iraq war — in a budget that would curb domestic programmes from health to education.
Bush also warned that even more spending for Iraq could be needed, as he unveiled a $2,9-trillion budget for fiscal 2008 certain to stoke anger among Democrats already braced for ”sticker shock” over the war tab.
The costs of the four-year-old war are inching toward a staggering $1-trillion mark. If Congress approves the war-funding request, the US will have spent $661,9-billion on combat in Iraq, Afghanistan and related activities, the administration said.
On the domestic front, Bush called for making is 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent and said it could be done while shifting the budget to surplus by 2012.
The spending plan would hold growth in domestic discretionary spending to 1%. After accounting for inflation of 2,5%, that rise would amount to a cut in programmes ranging from labour to education and cleaning up the environment.
”My formula for a balanced budget reflects the priorities of our country at this moment in its history, protecting the homeland and fighting terrorism, keeping the economy strong with low taxes and keeping spending under control,” Bush said in a statement.
But Democrats, now in control of the House of Representatives and the Senate, are sure to question Bush’s upbeat fiscal projections.
”The president’s budget is filled with debt and deception, disconnected from reality, and continues to move America in the wrong direction,” said Senate Budget Committee chairperson Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat.
”This administration has the worst fiscal record in history and this budget does nothing to change that,” Conrad added.
Bush’s budget request will kick off weeks of hearings on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers will try to produce their own version of a budget blueprint by spring. — Reuters