Once again, the truth is considerably more complicated than a one-sentence attack on the Dems (or the Repubs, for that matter):
I'll post a link to "The Fight Over Appropriations: Myths and Reality," but here's the pertinent part about the $20 billion:
<<Despite the Administration’s sharp criticism of
the planned congressional appropriations
levels, the overwhelming bulk of the $53.1
billion increase in appropriations that Congress
plans for 2008 — 81 percent of it — consists of
increases the Administration itself has
requested in military and homeland security
programs.
•
The main dispute between the Administration
and Congress is over a $21 billion difference in
domestic appropriations.
•
The Administration proposes to cut these
programs $16 billion below the 2007 levels
(after adjusting for inflation) and threatens to
veto bills that do not contain these cuts.
Congress would reject these cuts and instead
provide a modest increase for these programs
of $5 billion, or 1.4 percent. The main dispute
between Congress and the Administration is
thus whether to cut programs funded in
domestic appropriations bills, not whether to
make large increases in them.
•
Under the funding levels that Congress plans,
domestic discretionary programs would grow
more slowly than revenues, and thus would not
create pressure for tax increases.>>
That $20 billion is actually found by Bush's request to cut $16 billion from domestic programs, while the Dems want to raise it $5 billion from current levels. They're adding the cut and the proposed actual raise together. Pretty misleading, and doesn't at all address the big increases in defense and Homeland Security Bush does want, none of which are going to the soldiers overseas, as that is considered emergency spending.
And more:
<In other words, the bulk of the allegedly irresponsible increase in funding for appropriated programs reflects the President’s own request for additional military and security funding. The increase that congressional leaders plan for domestic discretionary programs is quite small.
The notion that this modest domestic increase of $5 billion, which follows several years of cuts in these programs, could have a noticeable effect on the $14 trillion U.S. economy is not credible. Nor is the claim that funding for domestic discretionary programs would put significant pressure on the
deficit and force a tax increase, since these programs would grow less rapidly than either the economy or tax revenues. >
Once again, a few extra minutes spent researching something can yield a much more complicated picture.
Here's the link to the whole article:
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache...ient=firefox-a