With congressional elections looming in November, the fiscal 2007 blueprint came under swift attack from Democrats, who said elderly and working Americans would bear the brunt of Bush's fiscal mismanagement.
Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record) of Pennsylvania, said Bush's proposed funding cuts for health and education were "scandalous."
Specter chairs a Senate panel that oversees spending on such programs.
Bush wants to pare back or scrap 141 programs, with education, cancer research and community policing programs slated to take a hit.
But Bush proposed a record $439.3 billion defense budget, up 4.8 percent from last year.
The president renewed his call for the Republican-led Congress to make his tax cuts permanent even as he projected a surge in the federal deficit to $423 billion this year, up more than $100 billion from fiscal 2005.
"After creating record deficits and debt with his budget busting tax breaks, the president is asking our seniors, our students, and our families to clean up his fiscal mess with painful cuts in health care and student aid," Reid said.
The White House penciled in $50 billion for war spending in 2007 but budget director Joshua Bolten said that was simply based on Congress's initial allowance for 2006 and was not a firm assessment of the needs.
A new infusion this year of $70 billion in emergency funds for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan dwarfs the proposed domestic program cuts in fiscal 2007 and is double the five-year savings of $36 billion in Medicare.
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