Demagogue

Administration officials say their goal is a 2009 deficit that is half of this year's level, which White House budget chief Joshua Bolten has said he expects to hit $500 billion.

Achieving a $250 billion deficit in five years, however, could take hundreds of billions in savings, a difficult political task.

White House officials deny warnings circulating on Capitol Hill that they might define their goal as halving the 4.4 percent share of the U.S. economy that a $500 billion deficit would be next year to 2.2 percent in five years.

President Bush today unveiled a $2.57 trillion budget that eliminates dozens of politically sensitive domestic programs, including funding for education, environmental protection and business development, while proposing significant increases for the military and international spending.

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About 150 programs in all would be shuttered or radically cut back to help meet Bush's goal of shaving the budget deficit in half by 2009.

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Another senior official said the deficit in the Bush plan would decrease from 3.5 percent of gross national product this year to 3 percent in fiscal 2006 and 1.5 percent by 2009, enough to meet Bush's pledge.