The Hindu : International : Bush cuts domestic spending

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 08, 2005

International

International

Bush cuts domestic spending

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, FEB. 7. The United States President, George W. Bush, sent to Congress today a$2.5 trillion budget that spares the Departments of Defence and Homeland Security but slashes domestic spending programmes that include farm aid and housing grants for the poor.

The Bush plan cuts discretionary domestic spending outside of national security by 0.7 per cent. The White House is calling this budget the most austere proposal since the Reagan era and in line with Mr. Bush's idea to come to terms with soaring deficits.

For fiscal 2006 Mr. Bush has requested nearly $ 420 billion for the Defence Department which represents a nearly 5 per cent increase over the 2005 funding levels. Defence spending for fiscal 2006 is 41 per cent over fiscal 2001.

"We are a nation at war. The President's budget together with the supplemental spending proposals the President has made provides the men and women in uniform what they need to prevail," the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, has said. The Department of Homeland Security will be getting a seven per cent increase this year, for a total of about $ 34.2 billion.

Left out items

But what this fiscal 2006 budget leaves out are some big and critical items such as the future cost for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the kind of money that would be required to make necessary and envisaged shifts in administering the social security programme.

In the next several days the Bush administration will be asking Congress for a $ 80 billion supplemental to keep the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan going. This is in addition to the $ 25 billion that was provided by Congress last year for 2005. The aid budget provides $ 640 million for Pakistan and $ 437 million for Afghanistan to fight the growing drug trade in that country. And, the Pentagon says in its allocation that there is authority to provide assistance up to $ 750 million with Congressional notification to military or security forces in Iraq, Afghanistan "and other designated nations to increase their ability to fight in the global war on terror and to support the U.S. military and stability operations."

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