2009 Federal Budget

Bush's Budget Projects Deficits

Yesterday,The Bush Administration released their 2009 federal budget. Many of the items proposed in the budget will make it very difficult for the next presidential administration to balance it in upcoming years. To no surprise, military and defense spending is up, the Defense Department in particular will grow by nearly seven percent. Once again it appears that The Administration is continuing to push their agenda of homeland security and the ongoing war on terror, as it may be their last chance. The 2009 federal budget also contains provisions that would keep tax cuts, that are scheduled to expire in 2011, on the books as permanent. In total the 2009 federal budget would create a deficit over $410 billion. In 2004, at the end of President Bush’s first term in office the deficit was pushing $413 billion. When he had stepped into office three years earlier there was in fact a budget surplus. Many of the nations financial problems can be attributed to the steady increase of defenses. The economy has also slowed down considerably in the past years. Bush proposed several items in the budget to help stop the growing deficit, one of them by collecting healthcare fee’s from non-disabled veterans. They have also proposed that any domestic program not related to defense keep their funding at $393 billion over the next five years. The next administration will have their hands full trying to get the budget out of the red.

DIRECT LINK TO ARTICLE: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/04/AR2008020400493.html