Education: The Obama budget calls for the boldest reform in higher-education financing in a generation, with a greatly expanded role for the government in making college affordable and ensuring that students earn degrees or credentials. Under the proposal, Pell Grants would be tied to inflation for the first time since the initiative’s inception, providing annual raises for recipients. The grant program also would be turned into a entitlement program with guaranteed funding, like Social Security or Medicare. Pell Grants are the bedrock of college aid, but soaring tuition and fees over the past two decades have eroded their value. Twenty years ago, the grants covered 50 percent of the cost of a public college education, including room and board, and 20 percent for a private college. By 2008 the figures had slipped to 32 percent of public college costs and 13 percent of private costs. Obama also proposed that the government become the direct lender for all federally backed student loans, ending subsidies to private lenders and saving the government $4 billion annually.
Defense: The Pentagon is requesting a budget with minimal growth in total spending and a slight decline in war costs. Among priorities are increasing the size of the Army and Marine Corps and improving mental-health efforts amid a spike in suicides. Overall, the base defense budget will grow 4 percent, from $513 billion to $533.7 billion. A separate war funding bill for Afghanistan and Iraq will ask for $130 billion for next year, down about 8 percent from the $141.4 billion projected for this year. About $66 billion of the current year’s war costs have been approved by Congress, and the administration said Thursday another $75.5 billion is needed to reach $141.4 billion. Adding the base budget and war funding measure, the total request will rise from $654.4 billion this year to $663.7 billion next year. Defense officials cautioned that the base budget numbers are not directly comparable. The proposed budget contains some costs — such as funding to counter roadside bombs and expand the military — that were in war funding bills before. President Barack Obama is expected to unveil his plan Friday for withdrawing U.S. combat forces in Iraq by next year. Nonetheless, the Pentagon is predicting that war costs will drop only slightly.
Health: The new budget outline offers Americans little detail about how President Barack Obama would bring down their medical bills or help those without coverage find affordable health insurance. But the spending plan includes a set of principles that the president says he will adhere to in pushing ahead with his campaign to overhaul the health-care system. Obama wants to “aim for” the goal of providing every American with insurance, also known as universal coverage, though he does not lay out a course for how to accomplish that. Other principles include guaranteeing a choice of health plans, reducing premiums and putting an end to insurance companies denying coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions. The budget outline also provides a blueprint for how the president and his congressional allies may look to fund those goals.
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Washington Bureau, Tribune Newspapers
