The budget is huge, complicated and boring. But Yahoo covered the main points:
WASHINGTON - President Bush on Monday unveiled a $2.9 trillion spending plan that devotes billions more to fighting the war in Iraq but pinches pennies on programs promised to voters by Democrats now running Congress. Democrats widely attacked the plan and even a prominent Republican conceded it faced bleak prospects.
Bush's spending plan would make his first-term tax cuts permanent, at a cost of $1.6 trillion over 10 years. He is seeking $78 billion in savings in the government's big health care programs — Medicare and Medicaid — over the next five years, in part by increasing premiums for higher-income Medicare recipients.
There you have it. He wants war and tax cuts - only about $1.6 trillion. I can't imagine there was any other time in history when war was paid for by tax cuts. What a remarkable achievement. Only Bush could conceive of such a thing.
Oh, but Bush wants to save money. All the conservatives in his party are attacking him for spending so much money. So, he says, OK, let's reduce Medicare and Medicaid by about $78 billion. Nobody will notice this, except poor people and they don't vote anyway. Some Democrats may notice, but they don't vote for Republicans either.
In essence, Bush thinks escalating the Iraq War and distributing tax cuts to the rich is better for the United States than maintaining the health of America's citizens.
Democrats attacked this budget immediately. We need to reduce money for the Iraq War so we can DE-escalate military operations. And we need to tap into the $1.6 trillion tax-cut bonanza to provide decent healthcare to all citizens. This is what Edwards recently recommended. Other Democratic contenders will soon recommend other ways to bring the number of people without health insurance down to zero.
Bush's budget demonstrates the stark contrast. Republicans favor the rich. Democrats prefer to help the non-rich.
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