This week President Bush unveiled his budget proposal for two thousand nine.
If he gets what he wants New Hampshire will have to find funding for many programs the federal government funded in the past.
This comes at a time when the state budget is strapped too.
NHPR Correspondent Matt Laslo reports from Washington.
Back in two thousand two George Bush became the first president to sign a two trillion dollar budget.
He may top that this year.
He has requested three trillion dollars from Congress.
And much of that is going to national security . . . not domestic programs.
That could hurt a state like New Hampshire, which is bracing for its own budget shortfall, estimated at between fifty to one hundred and fifty million dollars.
Nick Johnson covers state issues for the DC based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
:10 "New Hampshire would be looking at, under the president's budget proposal, approximately a $70 million cut after adjusting for inflation."
Johnson says that could mean an increase in New Hampshire's budget gap by fifty to one hundred percent.
The president wants to cut funding to Education programs, state highway projects, low income energy assistance programs, and the state children's health insurance program.
Among others. First District Democratic Congresswoman Carol Shea Porter says when the economy is hurting the government ought to help.
:17 "…… We have to build our infrastructure, take care of our senior citizens, we have to take care of our healthcare problems, we have to provide oil for people who can't afford to heat their homes. So we are just going to have to resist the president. We simply can not accept his budget"
But resisting the president – even one in his final year in office – is hard.
Democrats have passed only one budget since taking over the majority . . . and in it they caved to most of the President’s wishes.
In 2007 Congress passed all its spending bills and Bush got out his veto pen and sent them right back.
He won on the final spending cap, but Congress did get to shift around the spending priorities.
Since then, however, Second District Democratic Congressman Paul Hodes says things have changed.
:13 "I think we are in a very different position this year than we were last year. If last year he was a limping duck then this year he is truly a lame duck. So I expect to be pushing for a fiscally responsible budget but one that has sensible priorities."
But this is also an election year, which ups the stakes on both sides.
Bush will want to look as fiscally conservative as possible to help incumbent Republicans.
And Democrats will want to focus on domestic programs.
Hodes says he thinks his party has the votes to beat back spending for the president's number one budget priority.
:08 "The only thing it does is put in a huge increase in military spending, so it is simply unworkable, so I simply do not think it will come to pass."
Bush wants to increase Department of Defense funding by thirty five billion dollars . . . bringing its total to over half a trillion dollars.
But that doesn't include war funding, which is projected to be around two hundred billion dollars.
Even without that funding included in the budget, the administration forecasted a four hundred billion dollar deficit for the year.
New Hampshire Republican Senator Judd Gregg is the leading Republican on the Budget committee.
He disagrees with New Hampshire's House members.
Gregg wants to see less program funding . . . not more.
:10 "My view is if the federal government is going to be running a $400 billion dollar deficit, which is a lot of debt passed onto our children, than we ought to be very disciplined and we shouldn't be expanding federal spending."
But Nick Johnson, with the Center on Budget, says this may be the time when states need that funding most.
13 "It would really be helpful for the economy as a whole if the federal government did what they did in the last recession, which was to provide additional assistance to state and local governments to help them ride this downturn."
Bush was president during the last recession.
While he didn't support the increased assistance for states . . . he did sign the bill.
It is unclear what Bush and the Congress will agree to after the elections are done in November.
But Johnson says some of this debate over domestic funding will be pushed on to the next president – whoever it may be.
:10 "But the new president won't take office until a third of the way through the next fiscal year, so what that suggests is that at least for the next twelve months or so discretionary spending is going to be pretty tight."
So local New Hampshire officials may well have to budget around lower federal aid this year.
And what that means for the projected state shortfalls is now up to the legislature to decide.
For NHPR News, I'm Matt Laslo in Washington.
