President Bush Begins Push for Budget Discipline in Fiscal 2006

Government spending is growing at unsustainable rates, threatening future economic growth and prosperity. This threat is why FreedomWorks applauds President Bush for presenting a fiscal 2006 budget that begins to restrain discretionary spending and eliminates some unneeded programs.

According to the White House, the proposed budget contains “more than 150 reductions and terminations of non-defense discretionary programs, saving over $20 billion in 2006.” Discretionary spending would increase no more than 2.1 percent—which is below the expected rate of inflation—making the plan a good first step towards a responsible federal budget.

While President Bush is certainly moving in the right direction, the federal budget would still be a staggering $2.57 trillion in fiscal 2006. The President’s Budget is a good start, but Congress needs to restrain spending even further.

FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe commented:

“Government spending has spiraled out of control and represents a gigantic burden on our economy. Many of the proposed cuts are long overdue. For example, the budget would substantially cut subsidies to agribusinesses and to the Amtrak railroad system.

“Former President Ronald Reagan once said that a government program is ‘the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this Earth,’ but President Bush is seems determined to prove that this isn’t true by proposing actual elimination of some unneeded programs.”

“FreedomWorks urges Congress to follow the President’s lead and cut even more wasteful expenditures from the bloated federal budget. America doesn’t have a deficit problem, it has a spending problem, and today we saw a hopeful step forward.”