Although he has argued in previous years that balancing the budget should not be a top priority while the nation is at war and in a recession, he is now putting more emphasis on reducing the deficit, which he projects will peak this year at $521 billion.
His budget estimates that his policies will bring the deficit down to $364 billion in 2005 and $237 billion by 2009. The deficit as measured as a share of the economy -- a yardstick that many economists say is a more significant gauge of the deficit's effect -- would drop from 4.5% of the gross domestic product in 2004 to 1.6% in 2009.
The administration expects the deficit to drop in part because of increased revenue from an improving economy. The budget also calls for cuts that would come almost entirely from "discretionary" spending -- programs whose budgets are controlled by Congress in appropriations bills.
But that is less than one-fifth of the federal budget, the rest flowing through "entitlement" programs such as Medicare and Social Security.
Even some Republicans are bridling at Bush's focus on the discretionary programs. They warn that freezing that small part of the budget will do little to reduce the deficit.
"While I am dedicated to developing fiscally conservative budgets, no one should expect significant deficit reduction as a result of austere non-defense discretionary spending limits," said House Appropriations Chairman C.W. "Bill" Young (R-Fla.). "The numbers simply do not add up."
Although the centerpiece of last year's $2.2-trillion budget plan was a big tax cut to stimulate the economy, this year's budget includes little more than retreads of past proposals that have languished in Congress.
The president's top priority is to permanently extend most of the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003. Bush also is recycling proposals to increase tax incentives for savings.
In setting spending policy, Bush has made room for increases in his top priorities -- defense, homeland security and education -- while squeezing other areas. Six of the Cabinet's 15 departments would see their budgets cut, with Agriculture taking the biggest hit:
* Defense: The Pentagon would be the big winner if Congress approves Bush's request to boost defense spending by 7% to $401.7 billion. That would be the seventh straight year of defense budget increases, a string unseen since the end of World War II.
