Bush's Budget

Well folks, the President's new budget is out. It's a piece of work; you know this government finance stuff is filled with gobbledygook. So here, for your reading pleasure, is a succinct summary of the major points in the President's budget, thanks to our friends at Air America.

General
Overall, discretionary spending other than defense and homeland security would fall by nearly 1 percent

About 150 programs in all would be shuttered or radically cut back to help meet Bush's goal of shaving the budget deficit in half by 2009.

One out of every three of the targeted programs concerns education.

The deficit is projected to reach a record $427 billion this year.

War
The spending plan does not include future expenses of the continuing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

The administration will submit a separate supplemental request largely for Afghanistan and Iraq operations in the current fiscal year

Social Security
The upfront transition costs of restructuring Social Security as Bush are not included

Bush’s Social Security plan would begin in 2009 and result in $754 billion in additional debt over its first five years

Winners
Bush will seek about 5 percent more, or about $600 million, for the $12.8 billion program for low-income area school districts. Last year, he requested a $1 billion increase.

The Coast Guard -- now part of the Homeland Security Department -- will get $8.1 billion, $600 million over this year.

Community health centers would grow to over $2 billion, an increase of $304 million, or almost 18 percent, over this year.

$3 billion for the Millennium Challenge Account, the president's signature effort to help poor countries boost their economic growth.

Losers
The administration will propose a 5% across-the-board cut in price supports for crops and a reduction from $360,000 to $250,000 in the annual cap on subsidies that farmers can receive.

Bush would slice a $600 million grant program for local police agencies to $60 million next year.

Grants to firefighters, for which Congress provided $715 million this year, would fall to $500 million.

$300 million the government gives to states for incarcerating undocumented immigrants who commit crimes would be eliminated.

The Environmental Protection Agency's $8.1 billion would drop by $450 million, or about 6 percent, with most reductions coming in water programs and projects won by lawmakers for their home districts.

Eighteen housing and community development programs would be consolidated and cut by about 40% to a total of $3.7 billion.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs would be sliced by $100 million to $2.2 billion. The reduction would come almost entirely from the agency's effort to build more schools.

The $2.2 billion program that provides low-income people with home-heating aid would be cut to $2 billion.

The Parks Service's budget would drop nearly 3 percent to $2.2 billion, largely due to a reduction in its construction account.

The budget includes no subsidy for Amtrak and would eliminate $20 million for the next generation of high-speed rail and $250 million for railroad rehabilitation.

The budget proposal would cut $94 million in grants for the Healthy Communities Access Program and phase out rural health grants

He would renew his effort to cut a $143 million program for the removal of severely distressed housing.

The budget would expand Pell grants, which help the lowest-income students attend college, at the expense of the Perkins loan program for low- and middle-income college students. The $6-billion loan program would be eliminated.

The budget would more than double the co-payment charged to many veterans for prescription drugs, from $7 to $15, and would require some to pay a new fee of $250 a year for the privilege of using government health care