Text 1931, 86 rader
Skriven 2005-12-22 23:32:42 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (051222f) for Thu, 2005 Dec 22
====================================================
===========================================================================
Fact Sheet: Fiscal Year 2006: Keeping the Commitment to Restrain Spending
===========================================================================

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
December 22, 2005

Fact Sheet: Fiscal Year 2006: Keeping the Commitment to Restrain Spending



With final approval today in Congress of the FY2006 budget bills, the
President's plan to restrain spending and reform programs will soon become
law. The President worked with Congress to reduce non-security
discretionary spending below last year's level, terminate or reduce funding
for 89 lower-priority or poor-performing programs, and rein in mandatory
spending for the first time in nearly a decade. This commitment to fiscal
discipline will help keep the Federal government on track to achieve the
President's goal of cutting the deficit in half by 2009.

A Responsible Budget
  þ The President's FY2006 budget was the first since the Reagan
    Administration to propose reducing non-security discretionary spending
    below the previous year's level. Congress agreed to these savings in
    its budget resolution, and this year's appropriations process put these
    savings in place.
  þ The Administration supported an additional 1 percent across-the-board
    cut in all discretionary spending, except the Department of Veterans
    Affairs. This cut produced more than $8 billion in savings.
  þ Even before the application of the across-the-board cut, total
    discretionary spending growth was kept to just 2.1 percent, less than
    the rate of inflation. With this additional cut, overall discretionary
    spending growth was reduced to just 1.1 percent.
  þ The President has succeeded in reducing the growth rate of non-security
    discretionary spending every year that he has been in office, from a
    high of 15 percent growth inherited from the previous Administration in
    2001 to an actual cut in this spending in FY2006 below the previous
    year's level.

Restraining Spending And Reforming Programs
  þ In his FY2006 budget, the President proposed 154 terminations and
    reductions to lower-priority or poor-performing programs for a total of
    $15.8 billion in savings in FY2006.
  þ Savings were achieved by Congress in 89 of these of these proposals,
    producing $6.48 billion in savings. This is a significant improvement
    over FY2005 in which Congress enacted only 7 of the President's 65
    savings proposals, for a total of only $366 million.
  þ Additionally, $400 million in rescissions that the Administration
    requested to help offset additional hurricane relief spending were
    approved.

Reining in Entitlement Spending
  þ In his FY2006 budget, the President proposed reforms to mandatory
    spending programs to save $53.8 billion over five years.
  þ Congress adopted the call for entitlement reform in its budget
    resolution, and legislation passed by the House and Senate will provide
    nearly $40 billion in mandatory savings over five years, $5 billion
    more than Congress called for in its budget resolution.
  þ When signed into law, the deficit reduction package will be the first
    of its kind enacted in nearly a decade.
  þ Reforms in the legislation include:
      þ Slowing the spending growth in Medicaid by 0.4 percent over the
        next five years.
      þ Reducing overpayments to pharmacies for Medicaid drugs.
      þ Giving governors more flexibility to better manage programs - a
        change supported by many Republican and Democratic governors.
      þ Closing loopholes that allow estate planners to hide assets to game
        the system.
      þ Saving more than $12 billion by reducing subsidies to private
        student loan lenders and improving benefits to students. The reform
        includes the largest single increase in grant aid history for
        low-income students and $3.75 billion in grants for students who
        major in math or science.
      þ Reducing taxpayer liability for the unfunded pension insurance
        program by $3.6 billion.
      þ Reducing Medicare growth by 0.3 percent over five years, saving
        $6.412 billion.
        (All figures according to Congressional Budget Office.)

# # #
===========================================================================
Return to this article at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/12/20051222-15.html

 * Origin: (1:3634/12)