Bush's Plan Increases Defense Spending

WASHINGTON - President Bush, facing his final go-around on spending with a Democratic-run Congress during this presidential election year, on Monday unveiled a $3.1 trillion budget for 2009 that boosts defense spending and pares down Medicare costs while leaving a near-record deficit.

The first spending plan in history to top $3 trillion would freeze or eliminate many domestic spending programs yet still rack up a $407 billion deficit for fiscal 2009, which begins Oct. 1. The Pentagon is the only department for which Bush proposes a significant increase; its budget would grow 7.5 percent to $515 billion.

The budget is a blueprint of the president's spending priorities that he submits to Congress, which passes a series of appropriations bills to fund the government. Democrats plan to propose their own version soon.

Here are some of the ways the budget proposal would affect Florida:

EVERGLADES: The budget contains $214 million to $250 million for projects to restore and protect the Everglades. That includes $24 million for the Picayune Strand, $31 million for Kissimmee River restoration and $60 million for the Modified Waters Delivery Project.

That proposed spending compares with about $164 million in federal Everglades spending enacted in fiscal 2008, according to Kirk Fordham of the Everglades Foundation.

Said GOP Sen. Mel Martinez: "This is a substantial investment and marks progress in bringing our federal partners back to the table. As the budget moves through Congress, I will work to see these projects included and potentially expanded."

CARE FOR VETERANS: The budget includes more than $100 million in Department of Veterans Affairs funding toward a new VA hospital and outpatient clinic in Orlando.

The new hospital, to be across from the University of Central Florida College of Medicine, is intended to help lessen the demands on the crowded VA Hospital in Tampa, which takes in referrals from Orlando and other parts of Central Florida.

The funding would represent just a start toward the anticipated total hospital construction costs of more than $590 million. More than 90,000 veterans from the Central Florida region are enrolled in the VA health care system, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

HEALTH: Calls for trimming more than $600 billion in entitlement spending, mostly related to Medicare and Medicaid. The president's plan would bring $17 billion in reductions over five years to Medicaid, the program that serves poor and elderly people, including many nursing home residents.

Payments to hospitals and other providers also would be trimmed to help reduce a growth in projected spending by $178 billion over five years for Medicare, which serves seniors and disabled people.

Funding would be eliminated for the Children's Hospital Graduate Medical Education Program, which would have an impact on St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa and All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg.

SPACE: The plan provides NASA with $17.6 billion, a 2.9 percent funding increase from last year.

Florida's Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson said that does not cover for inflation or the costs of recovering from the Columbia accident, or close the five-year gap between the shuttle's retirement in 2010 and completion of a new crew exploration vehicle.

HOMELAND SECURITY: The budget includes a $750 million, or 79 percent, cut to the state Homeland Security grant program, which includes money to improve port security. It also cuts funding for the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program by nearly 50 percent.