President Bush's Final Budget Proposals

The President, while not able to pass bills in Congress, always puts together a budget proposal for Congress, outlining the Presidents goals and objectives for that fiscal year. While the Congress doesn't have to follow his ideas (and if the President is weak and Congress is in control of the opposite Party, they usually don't) it serves as a good starting point for the budgeting process. President Bush is proposing his final budget to Congress and over the weekend of Feb 2nd-3rd, preliminary information was released for analysis.

Bush's proposal essentially continues his focus on two things: Tax Cuts and Defense Spending. According to an Associated Press article, Bush is proposing "a 3 Trillion spending blueprint that would provide a big boost to defense and protect his signature tax cuts." The article points out that Bush is going to become the first President ever to propose a budget over $3 trillion dollars and was also the first to propose a budget over $2 trillion.

First looking at Defense spending, a Washington Post article explains that the overall increase in defense spending is going to increase by about 5%. This increase will put the total spending on defense at over $515 Billion dollars. As the article points out, this does not include the majority of spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Additionally, the article points out the the State Department, headed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, will received a 6.5% increase over last years budget to a total of $700 Million.