Bush The Spending Hawk
Starting The Bidding Low
By Dan McLaughlin Posted in Better Late Than Never | Budget | President Bush | The White House — Comments (17) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
This AP report suggests that President Bush may be submitting his most frugal budget yet, in his final year in office:
President George W. Bush's 2009 budget will virtually freeze most domestic programs and seek nearly $200 billion in savings from federal health care programs, a senior administration official said Thursday.
Given that this is an election-year budget submitted by a lame duck president to a hostile Congress, don't hold your breath waiting for this to get enacted. But for once, the Bush White House may be taking steps to draw an election-year contrast on spending, and just as a candidate who has sought to brand himself as a spending hawk seems poised to take the party's nomination. Maybe some parts of the GOP's domestic-policy brand can be salvaged yet. How does Bush propose to save that money?
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The president will propose nearly $178 billion . . . in savings from a health care program for the elderly [presumably, Medicare] - a number that is nearly triple what he proposed last year. Much of the savings would come from freezing reimbursement rates for most health care providers for three years. Another $17 billion . . . would come from the state-federal partnership that provides health coverage to the poor [Medicaid].
The official, whose spoke on condition of anonymity because the budget has not yet been released, said the budget for domestic programs would look like last year's.
"It's a very small increase," he said. "Very small."A second official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said that domestic discretionary spending would increase by less than 1 percent under Bush's proposal.
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One official made that clear that medical program for the elderly would continue to grow, but not as quickly as had been expected. "Medicare will grow at 5 percent. It just won't grow over 7 percent," said this official.
Savings also would come by charging wealthier people higher monthly premiums for the drug portion of this program.
Of course, any "savings" that come from plans for "the next three years" can easily be undone by the 2010 budget that will be proposed by the next President. Still, it does look like this is a 4-part plan: tight control over discretionary spending, a less favorable deal for some enrollees in the Medicare prescription drug plan, a worse deal for doctors and hospitals under Medicare (I assume this will get passed on in some fashion to patients) and unspecified Medicaid savings.
The devil as always will be in the details, and Democrats will no doubt brand this as what one presidential candidate in 1999 famously called "balancing the budget on the backs of the poor." But it would be really good news for the GOP to once again have a fight about stewardship of taxpayer dollars.
Bush The Spending Hawk 17 Comments (0 topical, 17 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
President Bush has never shown that he cared about restricting spending up to this point. He has increased the national debt by more than 50% in nominal terms, one-third in inflation-adjusted terms, since he took over. He has presided over substantial spending increases. Why should we take him seriously now? Has he really reformed or is he doing this just to pick a fight with the Democrats without regard to the results.
It's time to pick somebody else.
Man is free at the moment he wishes to be. --Voltaire
That his income redistribution plan will more than offset any savings he delivers by showing some backbone here.
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Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman
Much of the savings would come from freezing reimbursement rates for most health care providers for three years
Not sure what to think of that.
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Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman
"No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong." - Winston Churchill
And save a few hundred billion dollars every year. Then force the health care providers to accept Medicare and Medicaid patients, of course.
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Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman
Except for health care, energy and education. I wonder what these things have in common?
The Congress is now hostile, so President Bush remembers he's a Republican. When the Congress was friendly, he rubber-stamped everything.
I believe there's a lot of advantages to having an adversarial relationship between the Executive and Legislative branches. President Reagan was able to keep the Democratic Congress in line and thanks to the Republican Congress during President Clinton's years, spending was limited.
This also brings us to the perfect storm forming. If Democrats win the White House and remain in control of Congress, we're all in deep do-do. At least Bill Clinton had an unfriendly Congress to keep him under control. Hillary Clinton, if she wins, may not have that "problem."
I'm not certain what you mean about Reagan keeping Congress in line. Some of the years he had a Republican Senate, but the Reagan budgets all had huge deficits, comparable when adjusted for inflation, to the deficits that our current president has run.
Reagan more than doubled the real national debt and nearly tripled the nominal debt.
Not sure the inflation adjustment comparisons make sense. % of GDP is what matters.
Yes, the national debt was substantially higher as a % of GDP when Reagan left office than when he took office. No, there was no significant decrease in the increase in debt in FY '86-'89. Unfortunately, Reagan also laid the foundation for further large increases in debt during GHWBush.
And it reeks of hypocrisy.
This is a man desperately searching for a legacy he hasn't earned.
Some would say better late than never and perhaps in the grand scheme of things that case can be made. On a personal level I think it makes Bush look like an utter phony.
One thing I noted with interest: "Medicare will grow at 5 percent."
Funny, my private insurance is going up 18-25% a year. And when I change age groups, close to double that. Sixty-five is looking better all the time.
If he's doing right, he's doing right. Leave the 'authenticity' to the Democrats.
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"If we want to take this party back, and I think we can someday, let’s get to work." – Barry Goldwater
Hmm. Then there must be a lot of Democrats posting on Redstate.
For example, all the people who find Romney's recent conversion to devout conservative a bit unconvincing.
I'm all for him showing fiscal hawkishness, but in all truthfulness this is about 7 years too late and at the very least 3 years too late or Repubs might still have the House and Senate... The tax cuts should have come with spending cuts especially with Afghanistan and Iraq happening... oh well, I still respect GWB, but he and the Republican led Congress really let us down on fiscal matters...
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After discarding fiscal restraint, I'm not going to accept bread crumbs as some amazing return to fiscal responsibility. If the Republican party wants to show that it has stepped away from the concept of expanding government power, I'll be more than happy to crawl through broken glass to help them out. But right now, I've felt like I've been left sitting at the table of the dance while the person I brought ignores me and does whatever she pleases. Coming back with a drink and then promptly going off again is not going to make me come back to her.
Sure, I'll support candidates who understand that, that's why I liked Thompson and Paul. It's just a pity that the candidates who understood the idea of small government conservatism were so fundamentally flawed candidates.
We need better candidates.
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