September 11th 2001 was a big cause of the recession that occurred during the first part of president Bush’s term. This event called for the immediate spending in Defense and Homeland Security. With the war on terror and the risk of a future terrorist attack, the government had no choice but to spend over 750 billion dollars in national defense alone in 2002 and 2003 (“Economic”). Spending this money was inevitable, but other policies during the presidents first term could have handled in

Deciding weather to raise taxes or lower spending in order to have a balance in the budget is complicated. You have to look at factors that will help take place the fastest and have the longest impact. Lag time is the amount of time it takes before a certain policy goes into affect. First of all, it takes congress a while to realize that there is a problem going on. Once it does realize that something needs to be done, it has to be debated for a while and it must be passed. This can take a few years to pass. By that time the problem might already have been solved or it might be too late to fix. For tax cuts or hikes, it will take even longer because it takes time for the citizens or the government to actually get the money in their hands (Evans). For this reason, it might be better, if possible, to make changes government spending to insure that the plan goes into effect as soon as possible. Another reason why the use of government spending might be better than taxation is because with taxation you have people saving some of their money and putting less into the economy, but with government spending all of the money is put back into the economy. These reasons would show that using government spending is a much more efficient and quicker way to make a change in the economy. But because of the policies suggested earlier, we will not be increasing spending nor lower taxes, so the amount of money being pulled will be about the same.

Maintaining the current spending proposals along with the Presidents 2001 tax cut will be very hard to accomplish for the upcoming term. The current policies in place are ensuring growth, but new plans need to be enforced without having two contradicting policies such as more spending and less revenue. In 2005, the President would like to have an large ample increase in Homeland Security and the Department of Defense, to help us win the war on terrorism. This increase will also go along with more spending with education and health care. In the fiscal year of 2005 President Bush has $401.7 billion proposed for the Defense Department (“President”). The 7% increase over the 2004 amount will go towards modernizing our military and improving the quality of military bases around the globe (“Overview”). The budget in Homeland Security has grown by over $200 billion in the past 3 years and 2005 is no exception. The Bush Administration would like a 10% increase in spending over the fiscal year of 2004. This increase in money will go to better aviation, coast guard and food/agriculture security. Even though these increases in government spending go to protecting our citizens, money can be trimmed down. For instance, we already have the best military in the world, and rather than spending billions on a more modern military, if we can use part of that money to help pay the deficit and still sustaining growth. Another proposal by the President is spending $13 billion to help fund state governments for preparing/protecting against future terrorist threats (“President”). Instead of paying the state governments, the federal government should put that money towards the deficit while the state governments should pay for the funds. Because defense and security are so important especially at this time, most of the proposals should be left untouched, but and a few of the outlays should be changed in order to help lower the deficit.

Lower government spending will not be able to decrease the deficit alone. The tax cuts that Bush has brought into affect also will play a large role. The President would like to make his 2001 tax cut permanent. As of right now, the tax cuts are temporary lasting for this decade, however even though they are temporary, they already have had a big impact on our economy. But as of right now, the government needs more revenue and the tax cuts give the government less money. In lowering the tax rate in 2001, the Bush Administration has helped stimulate

Some topics in this essay:
President Bush, Bush Administration, Reconciliation Act, Alan Greenspan, Homeland Security, Department Education, , Social Security, Department Energy, Johansson Bush’s, tax cuts, social security, government spending, president bush, tax cut, homeland security, balance budget, federal government, economic growth, bush administration, tax relief reconciliation, relief reconciliation act, government spending taxation, social security benefits, growth tax relief,