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02/09/2005:

"Study: White House Seeks Evem More Cuts"

WASHINGTON (AP) - Spending restraints in President Bush's budget proposal would mean deep cuts to environmental protection, community development, veterans benefits and other programs through the end of the decade, a liberal think tank said Wednesday.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said its calculations, made using budget information provided to congressional committees, reveal future spending cuts that the White House wants but didn't detail in the 2006 budget it sent to lawmakers Monday.

``They did real budgeting, they just decided to hide it,'' said Richard Kogan, a budget analyst at the center. ``I don't fault them for budgeting, I fault them for hiding it.''

By proposing annual lids on government spending without giving program-by-program details of potential program cuts in 2007 through 2010, the report said, the White House sidestepped a debate on policy trade-offs.

``It is difficult to assess the impact of the proposed caps when one does not know what types of cuts the administration is planning to achieve them,'' the report concluded.
Full Article: guardian.co.uk