Special Ed.

"Just as we trust Americans with their own money, we need to earn their trust by spending their tax dollars wisely. Next week, I'll send you a budget that terminates or substantially reduces 151 wasteful or bloated programs, totaling more than $18 billion. The budget that I will submit will keep America on track for a surplus in 2012. American families have to balance their budgets; so should their government." -George W. Bush in his 2008 State of the Union delivery.


"President Bush unveiled a $3.1 trillion budget on Monday that supports sizable increases in military spending to fight the war on terrorism and protects his signature tax cuts. Bush says the plan will keep the U.S. economy growing and protect the U.S. militarily." -AP (via NY Times) 2/4/08.

I'm no math major, but...

Earmark Reform

According to WhiteHouse.com, the President will issue an executive order sometime today reforming earmarks. This reform would force Congress to include their pork barrel-earmarks in the regular text of a bill, therefore ensuring that Congress would debate each allocation and vote on all of the earmarks. Bush has also pledged to veto any budget that does not cut the number and cost of earmarks in half.