Other Columns by Paul M. Weyrich
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President Bush's 2006 budget proposed 154 targets for cuts. All told he is seeking to reduce non-security, domestic discretionary spending by one percent. This represents the first time since Ronald Reagan's presidency that a budget seeks an actual reduction in discretionary domestic spending.

One area in which the federal government has no business but spends plenty of money is education. The Bush budget would eliminate 48 Department of Education programs with a price tag of $4.3 billion.

Should the federal government be the Dutch uncle of the high technology industry? President Bush wants to slice $136 million in federal government subsidies for high technology research.

Office of Management and Budget Director Joshua B. Bolten made clear in a recent briefing that the Administration is counting on a changed mood among the Republican members of Congress.

The only thing that I've sensed that's changed is the mood in the Republican Caucus, which I was able to gauge at their retreat a week ago, was of being supportive of the president's message of the necessity of setting priorities and exercising fiscal restraint. I think, even though individual members will be disappointed about -- every individual member will be disappointed about something in this budget, I am sure; overall, I think they understand in the aggregate the need to restrain the federal government spending appetite, and I'm hopeful we're going to get some good support.

The Republican Study Committee's 100 House members by and large are committed to seeking a somewhat smaller federal government.

Not surprisingly, a wall of opposition to the President's budget is being erected. Expect virtually all Democrats in Congress to do the heavy lifting required to thwart President Bush. However, they will have some help. There will be some Republican members of Congress who also will be working to circumvent the President's budget request particularly when their states are beneficiaries of federal largesse.

House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle (R-Iowa) told Reuters that he had concerns about some of the budget cuts, particularly those related to agriculture, that President Bush had proposed. However, he made it clear that members of his committee were not to simply oppose budget cuts. They needed to seek out other savings because merely complaining about proposed budget expenditures would not suffice.

We can hope that the conservatives in Congress will force the GOP to show some backbone and support the President's budget cuts. Many people, including yours truly, want to see stronger reductions in non-security-related domestic spending and a reordering of the federal government's entitlement programs. Experience convinces me that the changes we really want will not come quickly. We conservatives have to start thinking beyond just paring down budgetary requests. We have to start thinking in terms of strong programmatic reforms that can promote fiscal integrity in the budget and appropriations processes.

A recent monograph that I wrote, Controlling Federal Spending: Three Modest Proposals, offers several ideas to start reordering the way Washington does business. (The monograph is available upon our receipt of a written request with a fully addressed return label or a fully addressed return envelope at least 6″ x 91/2″ in size.)

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