The editorial board of the conservative Washington Times takes a look behind the optics of the coming budget fight, which concerns less than one percent of federal spending. While we welcome the fiscal restraint now being demonstrated by President Bush and congressional Republicans, we regret that their unrestrained profligacy during the previous six years has contributed so much to the fiscal challenges that now confront the nation... ...Among the more fanciful trends in the White House's 2008 budget was its projection that nominal (including inflation) non-security discretionary outlays will fall each year for the next five years. Another was its projection that total real federal outlays, after having increased by more than 4 percent per year over the previous six years, would rise by an average of less than three-quarters of 1 percent during the next five. What does all this mean? Virtually the entire budget war will be fought over less than 1 percent of federal spending. If President Bush wins this budget fight, he would reduce federal spending by a very small percent. It would make a marginal impact on deficit payments and taxes paid over the long haul. Most likely, nobody would notice these effects. He would achieve this by cutting programs, such as Head Start, education grants, and the community development block grant, which would cause a great deal of hardship for lots of people and communities in every state. The effects would be immediate, precise, and harmful.