By
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - With President Bush preparing to release the point-by-point details of how his $1.96 trillion budget would rein in government spending, Vice President Dick Cheney said yesterday that Bush will not hesitate to veto spending bills he considers excessive.
Democrats, still celebrating an initial victory in trimming Bush's tax cut, awaited today's release of the full budget so they could see which government programs were targeted for deep reductions.
They said opposition to those proposed cuts will help as they seek to hold the line on the administration's $1.6 trillion, 10-year tax cut.
In Bush's first major defeat, the Senate last week voted to reduce the tax cut by one-quarter, to $1.2 trillion, an action that must now be reconciled with a House resolution endorsing the president's original request.
"When people see the budget, they're going to say, 'Oh, my God, I wanted a tax cut, but I didn't know what you were going to do to health care and to Medicare and national defense,'" Sen. John Breaux, D-La., said on ABC's "This Week."
Cheney defended the administrations budget decisions, arguing that spending has gotten out of control since 1998 when the first of a series of budget surpluses began.
"This president is eager to veto appropriations that come in over budget," Cheney said on ABC.
The administration's budget is proposing to limit the growth in discretionary spending - everything outside of mandatory benefit programs such as Social Security - to a 4 percent increase this year, far below the 8.7 percent rise former President Clinton won in his last budget.
The new administration is proposing outright cuts or no increases in discretionary spending at 12 of the government's 25 major departments, with the sharpest reductions occurring at the departments of Agriculture and Transportation.
Those cuts are balanced against increases in priority areas, including education. A senior Education Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said yesterday that the agency's increases would include $375 million to support charter schools and $320 million for a new initiative to help states develop reading and math assessment programs. All are Bush campaign issues.
Documents obtained by The Associated Press showed that among the cuts in Bush's budget are reductions in rural health, disease prevention, mental health and support for training doctors at children's hospitals.
A Justice Department official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, told the AP that the popular Community Oriented Policy Services program, a Clinton effort to put 100,000 new police officers on the streets, would be cut by 17 percent to $855 million, down from $1.03 billion budgeted for this year.
The Bush budget also will propose cuts in several other Clinton initiatives including efforts to combat nuclear proliferation, coordinate health care for the uninsured, promote energy conservation and boost economic development in poor communities.
Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., predicted a huge uproar after people see the details. He said the full budget "will put in sharp relief what this president is doing in order to be able to get this humongous tax cut."
The budget resolution passed by the House accepted the full $1.6 trillion Bush tax cut and his proposed spending caps. On Friday, the Senate passed a budget resolution that reduced the Bush tax cut to $1.2 trillion and raised to 7 percent instead of 4 percent the proposed increase in discretionary spending authority.
House and Senate negotiators will begin work after a two-week spring recess on a compromise budget resolution that will set the broad outlines for the separate tax and appropriations bills that will follow. Bush in his weekend radio address urged voters to attend congressional town hall meetings to voice support for his plan.
The congressional budget resolution has been based on a 207-page broad budget outline Bush unveiled on Feb. 28. Today, the administration is to send Congress a four-inch thick stack of budget documents providing precise details on the administration's spending proposals for all government programs.
