The next action with the proposed budget is that it will be debated in Congress, now controlled by the Democratic Party. It is the first year that the president has sent a budget to a Congress run by the opposing party of the political duopoly.
Major cuts proposed include cutting the amount given to Health and Human Services, which runs Medicare and Medicaid. The budget proposals will cut $5 billion from the department's programs for 2008, $10.1 billion further in 2009 and $15 billion more in 2010. For each of these budget cuts, the largest part will be Medicare, with a goal of cutting $66 billion out of Medicare over the next five years.
The largest increases represent military spending: The president's proposed budget for 2008 asks for an increase in money allotted for the war on terror by more than $40 billion, from 2007's allotted $99.6 billion to a proposed $145.2 billion.
The other major increase requested was a 10 percent increase in security funding � money for the Department of Defense, homeland security and other organizations. That 10 percent represents a proposed $53.5 billion increase.
The overall cost of education spending is proposed to be cut by more than $3 billion for 2008, largely by reorganizing many federal loan programs and reducing fees. Pell Grants for low-income college students, however, will receive more funding than in 2007 as President Bush is trying to increase the maximum grant allowed from $4,050 to $4,600 for 2008 and $5,400 five years from now.
The proposed budget would put the United States an estimated $239 billion further into debt, comparing spending ($2.90 trillion) from the amount of money the United States government expects to receive ($2.662 trillion) from taxes and other forms of income for 2008. The $239 billion in overspending the budget proposes is marginally less than previous budgets: 2006 ended with a $248 billion loss and 2007 ended with a $244 loss. The president's proposal suggests the first year that the United States end with a surplus is 2012, at more than $60 trillion.
Other areas that will have less money spent on them in the proposed budget include the Federal Communications Commission, Veteran's Affairs and a repeal of the Department of Energy's Oil and Gas Research and Development Program to advance petroleum technology.
The numbers for the 2008 budget can be found at this link.
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