2009 Bush Budget Proposal Highlights c/o the Politico

The Politico, my favorite DC news source even though it lacks a certain ex-majority leader of the Congress Simulation, has delivered some highlights of Bush's Budget Proposal for this year.

Of course, the new and improved President Bush v2.0, who actually vetoed spending bills--see SCHIP--last year, an idea unthinkable during his first term, maintained his "tough" stance on spending by attacking Medicare, in addition to "effectively fr[eezing]" spending in the Dept. of Education:

Not having to run for re-election this year, Bush is more aggressive in proposing major savings from the two health programs most important to the elderly, poor and disabled: Medicare and Medicaid. The goal is to slow the rapid cost growth in both entitlements, but the president’s budget demands as much as $195.6 billion in five-year savings and $603 billion over ten.

All card-carrying members of the GOP under 60 should be wiping tears from their eyes as W stands against the spendthrift, nay, profligate, Democratic-controlled Congress in an effort to corral spending! Until, of course, we get to the part of the budget reserved for Republican politicians not named Ron Paul:

The core Pentagon budget - not counting emergency funds for wars overseas- would grow to $515.4 billion, a $35.9 billion increase over current funding.

For those of you like me who cannot do math, I've painstakingly run the numbers and found this spending increase to be equal to just over 7%. A Republican President asks for more military funding even with military spending, at least in nominal dollars, at an all-time high? Nope--no surprises there. But this is more intriguing:

The National Science Foundation would grow to $6.85 billion, a 14 percent increase of $821 million.

I'm sure someone is behind that. And by someone, I of course mean several groups allied to "get that money." My guess is that this sum is headed straight to R&D grants in sectors like Big PHARMA, of whom I'm a huge fan. But if anyone else can offer any insight on where this money is going, please do so.

But this last bit is my personal favorite:

But the Park Service snares a $161 million increase for operations and new money is provided for programs to try to prevent wildfires in the West. Among the new initiatives is a $9 million “Birds Forever” program in Interior to try to reverse the dramatic decline in wild birds in the U.S. in the last 40 years. [bold mine]

I fear that the wild bird lobby has grown too powerful. We must move quickly if the Beltway Order is to survive.