President Bush's $3.1 Trillion Spending Plan
Monday, February 04, 2008SUSIE GHARIB: President Bush unveiled his 2009 budget today, the first spending plan ever to crack $3 trillion. It would also boost the Federal budget deficit to a near-record $407 billion next year. Included in the plan, increases in spending for the military and cuts in domestic programs. And for those keeping track, the president's budget proposal in his first term in 2002 was just over $2 trillion. Darren Gersh reports.
DARREN GERSH, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: The usual political rituals were observed for President Bush's last budget. There was the delivery photo op on Capitol Hill, followed by Democrats like North Dakota's Kent Conrad warning the president's spending plan would add hundreds of billions of dollars to the nation's debt next year.
SEN. KENT CONRAD (D) NORTH DAKOTA/CHAIRMAN, BUDGET COMMITTEE: If we do not deal with this burgeoning debt, the United States will be dramatically diminished. Our strength in the world will be reduced and our economy will be threatened.
GERSH: Next, the cabinet room photo op, the president praising the first budget delivered primarily over the Internet.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is not only an innovative budget, in that it is coming to Congress over the Internet. It is a budget that balanced -- gets to balance at 2012 and saves taxpayers money.
GERSH: The number crunchers doubt this budget will hit black. They point out the administration once again includes only a portion of the real cost for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The budget allots $70 billion in 2009, far less than the $195 billion requested for those conflicts in 2008. And the president's budget extends relief from the alternative minimum tax for one year, even though Congress is sure to continue it. The White House is also proposing $603 billion in savings from Medicare and Medicaid -- cuts Congress has rejected before. None of this is news to budget watchdogs like Maya Macguineas, although she does consider this budget a useful guide for voters weighing election year promises.
MAYA MACGUINEAS, PRES., COMMITTEE FOR A RESPONSIBLE FEDERAL BUDGET: In many ways, this budget paints a picture which shows the next president is going to be kind of stalled in how they get started. One might hope that the first thing that they would do is address the deficit, both short- and long-term challenges.
GERSH: One other budget ritual is the staggering statistic. This budget is $3.1 trillion -- enough money to give every one of the world's 6.8 billion people $441. Darren Gersh, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Washington.
