President Bush's 2008 budget, to be released this morning, proposes to eliminate the deficit by 2012 with many spending cuts in various national health and well-being programs.

• $101.5 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid over five years
• $223 million reduction in spending on the Children's Health Insurance Program, with cuts deep enough over five years to eliminate coverage for half of the children enrolled today
• $99 million savings by eliminating a childhood obesity prevention program

Yesterday, a reporter asked White House Press Secretary Tony Snow about President Bush’s amendments to the regulatory process. In his response, Snow reached new heights of evasiveness. Instead of just admitting the White House dislikes regulations because they are perceived to be a burden to industry, Snow talked about how much they love the environment. Speaking of climate change: But no administration in American history, and none on the face of the Earth, has been more aggressive in trying to do sound science on this than this administration. Considering the administration was recently found to be manipulating climate science, it is hard to believe Snow said this with a straight face. Is it too late to nominate Tony Snow for an Oscar?

David Broder's column in yesterday's Post, Deficit Day Of Reckoning? dutifully recounts the Democratic congressional leadership's guidelines for fiscal responsibility, sent to President Bush in a Jan. 26 letter. The letters urges that Bush's FY 2008 budget, due next Monday, Feb. 5:

• account realistically for projected federal costs
• realistically project short- and long-term deficits
• provide detail throughout the entire budget period so that the choices required to meet the budget goals are clear

For a breakout of the funding levels in H. J. Res. 20 -- the $463.5 "CRomnibus" spending package passed by the House yesterday -- by Appropriations subcommittee, click here ($, unfortunately). And for a program-by-program accounting of the funding increases/decreases from FY06, enacted, click here ($).