On February 4, President Bush presented his fiscal 2009 budget plan to Congress. The budget proposes spending a record $3.1 trillion. Last year’s budget stood at $2.9 trillion in comparison.
In unveiling the budget, Bush said the proposed plan was essential for maintaining American security. “Two key principles guided the development of my budget — keeping America safe and ensuring our continued prosperity,” Bush said in his message to Congress. “As commander in chief, my highest priority is the security of the American people.”
The budget proposal is heavy on spending for the military. It allots $515 billion to the Department of Defense’s base budget to support military readiness. An additional $70 billion will be allotted to resources and activities related to the Global War on Terror. Nevertheless, the Bush budget envisions even greater spending on Health and Human Services programs of dubious constitutionality to the tune of $733 billion.
The spending plan will lead to record deficits. Offsetting the spending are revenues of $2.7 trillion, a $407 billion shortfall compared to spending. As reported by CNN, “For his last budget, Bush, as a moneysaving measure, stopped the practice of providing 3,000 paper copies of the budget to members of Congress and the media, instead posting the entire document online. Democrats joked that Bush cut back on the printed copies because he ran out of red ink.”
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