Click here to see comments made and questions answered by Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) regarding the President's FY 06 budget. Gregg is chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. In this particular news conference, Gregg discussed the President's attempt to "discipline the fiscal house of the federal government," and defended some of the President's budget proposals to cut spending in order to reduce the deficit. What Gregg fails to mention is that Bush's tax legislation since 2001 is responsible for 48 percent of our current deficit, yet Bush's proposal for how to deal with the deficit is coming in the form of major cuts to non-defense domestic programs. This discipline will hurt public schools, people on food stamps, National Parks, and affect scores of other programs. True fiscal discipline by Bush would involve more responsible tax policies, because right now Bush is proposing that our current deficit be paid for by people who cannot afford it, all while giving massive tax breaks to very wealthy people.

The FY 06 budget proposal submitted yesterday by the President includes severe cuts for all non-defense discretionary spending. Under the President's plan, discretionary spending in areas other than defense and homeland security would fall by nearly 1 percent. Click here to see a Washington Post breakdown of how the President's $2.57 trillion budget proposal affects each individual agency. Click here and here for information on how the President's budget proposal would directly affect the budgets of states. Click here, here, here, here, and here for good budget analyses by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. For a good synopsis on how this budget proposal is protecting the rich while leaving everyone else out, read this article by Robert Borosage. Also, be sure to check out the latest edition of the Watcher for articles from OMB Watch on the budget.