Much of the attention in Washington today was on President George Bush's budget proposal and Congress's reaction to it.
New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg will play an influential role in that budget debate.
As chairman of the Senate Budget committee, he will have the first crack at squaring President Bush's proposals with reality.
Senator Gregg believes the President's goal of reducing the deficit by half - in the next four years - is a feasible one.
But Democrats say the Republican agenda is all smoke and mirrors.
NHPR correspondent Julie Donnelly has more from Washington.
Senator Judd Gregg quickly made it clear that his committee in the senate is fully behind the president's budget proposal.
"It's my intention ,hopefully, as budget chairman, to work with my colleaugues on our side of the aisle and across the aisle to put in place essentially a budget that follows the concepts outlined in this - which is that we control the rate of growth of spending, especially in discretionary accounts and in some entitlement accounts and that we look for reform."
The president's budget reportedly eliminates one hundred and fifty programs - although neither republican or democratic senators could produce a complete list of those programs.
Gregg has said it's important to understand the historically high national deficit in relation to the Gross National Product. .
And he says the President's budget reduces the deficit from 4 point five percent of the Gross national product to 2 percent of the GNP over the next 4 years.
Senator Gregg says there is a renewed commitment on Capitol Hill to reduce the deficit, and that he expects support from the majority of his colleagues.
Democratic leaders and a congressional budget office analysis point to the president's tax cuts as responsible for a large chunk of the federal deficit.
But Gregg disagrees.
"That sounds like good harvard economics, but that's not the way I see it. My view is that the tax cuts significantly reduced the recession, the depth of the recession - created more economic activity, more capital formation and as a result have generated renewed revenue for the federal government which probably wouldn't have been there because we would be into a much more severe recession."
Democrats are criticizing cuts to programs such as vocational education, the environmental protection agency and the COPS program that has put more police officers on the street.
But Democratic budget leaders are most critical of what they say is a hide and seek budget.
Senator Kent Conrad from North Dakota says he's upset by what's not in the budget - namely money for the Iraq war, the presidents plan to overhaul social security, and the interest that must be paid on the deficit.
He says Republicans should be honest about what the total budget costs are.
"I hope people are listening and I hope people understand the implications of what the president is doing and where he's taking the country - because he's going to take us right over the cliff into massive deficits and massive debts that will harm the American economy for a long time to come. These are the implications of the president's plan."
But senator Gregg says keeping items like Iraq spending out of the budget and off the books - reminds the pentagon that this is temporary funding.
"This war is going to be over, hopefully sooner rather than later, and when it's over I quite honestly don't want the pentagon having its base increased by the cost of this war. I would much prefer to have it outside the basic budget so we see it, we know what it is, we know what the cost is. But two or three years from now, that cost should be completely off the books."
Senator Gregg's committee will be the first to touch the president's budget proposal - but they won't be the last.
Members of congress will begin lobbying for programs they don't want to see cut.
Last year they were pretty effective.
While the president recommended eliminating 65 programs - only four actually got the axe.
For NHPR News, I'm Julie Donnelly in Washington.
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