Bush Touts Budget at Meeting With GOP By ALAN FRAM, AP

President Bush says his 2005 budget will balance national security, social needs and fiscal responsibility, but Democrats say his policies have wounded the economy and prompted sky-high federal deficits.

Bush plans to send Congress an election-year budget exceeding $2.3 trillion on Monday. Officials revealed new details including more money to fight AIDS in poor countries, and a spare 0.5 percent increase for nondefense, nondomestic security programs as part of his effort to halve record deficits by 2009. …

In his weekly radio address, Bush said he will propose a 3.5 percent pay increase for the military and an 11 percent boost in the FBI’s budget, including $357 million more for counterterror. …

Documents obtained by The Associated Press showed the Pentagon’s $401.7 billion request for next year [a 7 percent increase over this year] excluded operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The papers said the Defense Department expects to request extra money for those campaigns, but not until 2005 — after this November’s elections.

According to the documents, Bush will request $9.2 billion for national missile defense, $1.5 billion more than this year [mjh: vital in a war against people using granade launchers from donkey carts!]. He will also seek money for a new Virginia class attack submarine [mjh: essential in the desert]; for 1,153 unmanned aerial vehicles used heavily in Afghanistan and elsewhere; and for 24 FA-22 Raptor stealth fighters, a program Pentagon officials have considered reducing because of cost overruns [mjh: ie, even the Pentagon doesn’t want this]. …

[Bush’s proposals include] reviving procedures making it harder for lawmakers to increase spending without paying for the costs with budget cuts elsewhere. Tax cuts would not have to be paid for. [mjh: oh, my, of course not!]

Who is getting rich from the ”War on Terror”? mjh