Kraven Moorehead

Bush: Congress must bring discipline to federal spending
DETROIT (AP) — President Bush said Tuesday that Congress must bring discipline to the federal budget and cut failing or unnecessary programs even if they have laudable goals.

"Spending discipline requires difficult choices," President Bush told a Detroit audience.
By Luke Frazza, AFP

"It is essential that those who spend the money in Washington adhere to this principle — a taxpayer dollar ought to be spent wisely or not spent at all," Bush told the Detroit Economic Club.

Bush sent Congress a $2.57 trillion budget Monday that drastically cuts or eliminates 150 federal programs, including subsidies paid to farmers, health programs for poor people and veterans and spending on the environment and education. (Related story: Budget gets Dem heat on Hill)

Bush said every program on the chopping block is failing to meet its goals, duplicates other available services or is not an essential priority for the federal government. Bush singled out farm subsidies, which he said are providing government checks of up to $360,000 a year to individual farmers.

"I think that no farmer should get $250,000 a year in subsidy," Bush said. He said cutting the subsidies will save taxpayers $1.2 billion over the next decade.

Bush also cited Even Start, a 16-year-old literacy program for poor families. Bush said everyone wants poor people to learn to read, but three evaluations have made it clear that Even Start is not working.

"Congress needs to join with me to bring real spending discipline to the federal budget," Bush said to applause from automotive executives and others Michigan leaders jammed wall-to-wall at tables in a large room at Cobo Hall. "Spending discipline requires difficult choices. Every government program was created with good intentions, but not all are matching good intentions with good results."

Bush's slimmed-down budget proposal is just one of the conservative fiscal policies he plans to push in his second term as he tries to continue expanding the economy and improve the slowly recovering job market. Bush also wants tax cuts, deregulation, free trade and more modern training for the work force.

Questions about the health of the jobs market dogged Bush throughout his first term and was a hot-button issue in the presidential campaign. Ultimately the jobs situation and the economy wasn't enough of a concern to deny Bush a second term, although it contributed to his loss in the hard-hit swing state of Michigan.

Employment figures released last week provided a reprieve to the White House. While the addition of 146,000 jobs was small, it gave Bush a net gain of 119,000 jobs during his first term and allowed him to escape being the first president since Herbert Hoover to have a net loss of jobs on his watch.

"We have overcome a series of challenges to our economy," McClellan told reporters Monday. "We must continue to act to build upon the results we have achieved."

Bush has offered a budget proposal for next year that would boost spending on the military and homeland security but cut many other programs. Many of the programs Bush wants to cut are popular in Congress, which still has to approve his plan.

Gus Faucher, a senior economist at Economy.com, said Bush's plan to keep spending below the rate of inflation for programs outside of defense and homeland security is a change from the first term, when he oversaw large increases in federal spending.

"In that sense he has not been conservative at all," Faucher said.