The release of the President's budget is less than a month away, and Treasury Secretary John Snow has made it clear the budget will "call for sacrifices, no doubt about it." Like last year's "tough budget," this year's slicing and dicing is an attempt by the administration both to appear tough on spending, as well as help them pare the down the deficit -- a whopping $318 billion last year -- even further.

While reducing the deficit is something this administration should focus on, it's important not to forget the major cause of the huge deficits we have seen the over last few years: Bush's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. Through FY 2005, the Bush tax cuts enacted since 2001 have cost $819 billion. And extending these tax cuts, a move Bush plans to fight for this coming year, would cost $2.1 trillion through 2015. If this administration were truly dedicated to paring down spending and truly willing to ask people to "make sacrifices," they would be less focused on slashing already-meager funding for government programs, and more focused on reducing the hundreds of billions of dollars spent being spent on tax cuts per year ($225 billion last year alone). By focusing on the budget for sacrifices, as opposed to the tax cuts, the administration makes it quite clear that they are more comfortable with taking from low- and moderate-income families than they are with taking from the super-wealthy.

While talking to reporters about the budget yesterday, Snow also mentioned that other priorities for 2006 include passing a pension reform bill, tougher regulatory standards for government-sponsored enterprises such as Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, and increasing the debt ceiling.