Bush proposes big defense spending rise in new budget

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, February 03, 2004

Bush proposes big defense spending rise in new budget

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US President George W. Bush on Monday announced a 401.7 billion US dollar defense budget for 2005that accounts for 16.7 percent of the total 2.4 trillion dollar budget for the new fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1.

The figure represents a 7 percent rise over that of the currentyear, which stands at 375.3 billion dollars, but does not provide money for US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The US Congress approved 87 billion dollars for military and construction efforts in the two countries last year, and the administration is expected to ask the Congress for additional funding after the presidential election in November.

The Pentagon will raise spending on missile defense by about 7.7 percent to 9.2 billion dollars, but weapons procurement will dipto 74.9 billion dollars.

The budget for homeland security will increase by 4.4 percent from 27.1 billion dollars to 28.3 billion dollars. "We will continue to provide whatever it takes to defend our country by fully supporting our military, which is performing with great skill and honor in our battles overseas," Bush said in a budget message.

Bush, facing a re-election battle in November, promised to triman record 521-billion-dollar deficit for fiscal 2004 ending Sept. 30 to 364 billion dollars in 2005.

"The reason we are where we are in terms of the deficit is because we went to a recession. We were attacked. And we're fighting a war," he said at a cabinet meeting.

The president's budget plan proposes a rise of 3.5 percent in total spending, and a 13.2 percent increase in revenues which are projected at 2.04 trillion dollars.

While budget for defense and homeland security will have big rises, spending for seven of 16 cabinet-level agencies will be reduced. The budget will see spending for the Agriculture Department shrink by 8.1 percent to 19.1 billion dollars, and the Department of Health and Human Services decrease by 1.6 percent to68.2 billion dollars.

Economic growth is forecast at 4.4 percent in 2004 and 3.6 percent in 2005.

Source: Xinhua

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