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This Web site provides an independent analysis of the budget from a variety of organizations that have expertise in specific areas. We will continue to update the site as new analysis is released. See below for a list of organizations.

The president’s 2005 budget confirms the worst fears – this administration simply cannot be trusted to manage the nation’s budget in a fiscally responsible way that works to the benefit of all Americans. When the Bush administration took office in 2001, it inherited $5.5 trillion in projected budget surpluses over the decade. Within three years, the surplus has become a record – one half trillion dollar budget deficit for 2005 alone, with accumulated deficits estimated to top $5 trillion over the next 10 years.

  • The Bush tax cuts – not spending – are the primary culprits in our fiscal decline. (See chart)
  • The budget forecast only extends out for 5 years, masking the true cost of making the tax cut permanent after 2010.
  • The deficit does not include the estimated $50 billion cost for on-going operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
  • Overall funding for discretionary programs increased from 6.8% of GDP in 2001, before September 11 reshaped our priorities, to 8.1% of GDP in 2004. This is almost entirely attributable to increases in our defense, international, and homeland security budgets, which rose from 3.4% of GDP in 2001 to 4.7% in 2004. Outside these areas, non-security domestic discretionary spending has been essentially flat, with funding barely increasing from 3.3% of GDP in 2001 to 3.4% in 2004.
  • In fact, many programs like education, healthcare, veterans benefits, family oriented policing, and housing assistance for the poor are either being cut or underfunded for next year as well as the next five years.
  • The budget shifts domestic program costs to state governments, through a combination of budgets cuts and revenue changes, adversely affecting states at a time when they are facing difficult fiscal constraints.
  • The Administration’s new budget rules impose discipline on benefits for middle- and lower-income families but not on tax cuts, including tax breaks for corporations and the well-off.
  • Despite an overall increase in international funding, the President’s budget still shortchanges critical programs to promote basic education, family planning, maternal and child health, and safeguarding the environment. In a post-911 world, the President’s budget focuses only on the immediate and most visible crises, while failing utterly to address future instability and insecurity.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities General Issues Raised by the President’s Budget
AFL-CIO Bush FY2005 Budget Shortchanges America’s Workers
Center for Defense Information Analysis of the Missile Defense Agency’s FY2005 Budget
Center for Economic and Policy Research The Current Account Deficit and the Budget Deficit: Is $600 Billion Missing?
Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments FY2005 Defense Budget Request: DoD Stays the Course on Spending Plans
The Century Foundation The FY2005 Bush Budget and Bioterrorism
Children’s Defense Fund Bush Administration’s FY2005 Budget Plan Effect on Children
Coalition on Human Need General FY2005 Impact on Working Families
Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation & Council for a Livable World Military Highlights of the FY2005 Budget Request
Fair Taxes for All General FY2005 Budget Analysis
FamiliesUSA President’s FY2005 Health Budget is a "Rehash" of his "Stale" Proposals
Food Research and Action Center President Bush’s FY2005 Budget Impact on Childhood Hunger
Friends of the Earth The Bush Administration’s FY2005 Budget Impact on the Environment: Putting Our Future at Risk
Institute for America’s Future Bush’s FY2005 Budget Fails Education
InterAction FY2005 Foreign Operations Budget Analysis and Charts
OMB Watch FY2005 Budget Continues Fiscal Decline
National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials FY2005 Budget Impact on Housing
National Education Association FY2005 Budget Impact on Education
Natural Partnership for Women & Families FY2005 Budget Impact on Women and Families
Natural Resources Defense Council There He Goes Again: Bush’s FY2005 Budget Bashes The Environment
The Wilderness Society President’s FY2005 Budget Is Out of Touch With American Conservation Values

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