Bush's budget: Major increases for security, $35.9 billion cut in Medicare

[kurth]

February 07, 2006
Bush budget a tough row
His plan to trim Medicare and other programs may hit an election-year wall.
By Peter Grier | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON - The coming debate over the 2007 budget may be the most difficult fiscal discussion President Bush has yet faced.

Mr. Bush's proposed $2.77 trillion spending plan, released Monday, contains some controversial provisions - notably, a $35.9 billion reduction in Medicare spending over five years.

But it's an election year, and GOP leaders are worried about maintaining control of Congress. Rank-and-file Republicans may have little enthusiasm for tough budget cuts, while Democrats will almost certainly oppose them....

The Department of Defense would get a 6.9 percent increase, under the Bush plan. This would pay for a big boost in the Army's budget, from $99 billion to $112 billion, and a 15 percent increase in the size of US special forces, among other things.

The Department of Homeland Security would get a 9.8 percent increase, under the plan...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0207/p01s01-usec.html

[Cleita]

1. Wonderful! If that passes fewer doctors will accept Medicare

because it's not worth their while. Seniors who can't travel hundreds of miles looking for a doctor who will take them, will go untreated.

[Double T]

2. This is the kind of budget a madman would create.............

and so it was and is.

[whosinpower]

3. The poor, the infirmed, the elderly

Are paying for the war. And Halliburton, and the big oil companies are drowning in profits.

George's plan is going exactly how he wants it to go.

[Straight Shooter]

4. We're paying for health care over there ...

... so we don't have to pay for it over here.