WP: Congress Unlikely to Embrace Bush Wish List

Experts Say Cuts in Farm Subsidies, Medicaid and Other Domestic Programs May Be Unrealistic

With his 2006 budget, President Bush delivered Congress a tall order, asking for at least six significant governmental reorganizations and an unprecedented five-year freeze in domestic spending to get control of the federal budget deficit.

Under the president's proposal, lawmakers would have to scrap much of the farm law they passed in 2002 to realize the $8.2 billion in cuts Bush expects from farm subsidies over 10 years. The federal student loan program would need to be restructured to find $10.7 billion over the next decade.

(snip)

But many analysts doubt that Congress will fully embrace the president's recommendations, and the greetings from Wall Street economists yesterday were not encouraging.

"Clearly their deficit numbers are not credible -- haven't been for the last few years and they shouldn't be looked at with much seriousness now," said David Greenlaw, an economist and fiscal policy expert at Morgan Stanley.

Edward McKelvey, an economist at Goldman Sachs, noted that all presidential budgets ask a lot from Congress. But by resolutely standing by his tax cuts, Bush has put an unrealistic onus on Congress to focus narrowly on finding spending cuts, he said, concluding, "I don't think it's politically realistic."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6230-2005Feb7.html

...25% of the elected democrats lie next to the rethugs. So Bush is getting what he wants.

those red farm states won't take too kindly to the reduction of their part of the welfare pie

deal with the Republican Congress? :crazy:

(who writes this shit?)

including most of the dems. Very sad day. ANOTHER sad day, that is.

but they're so busy bombing planet earth that they can't be bothered with stupid things like education, health and human services. :crazy:

that's our little chimperor's way.

it would be a start .

n/t