There are two excellent posts on Dubya's proposed budget at the Cato@Liberty blog. The first, from Stephen Slivinski, cuts through the whining and hoopla, and does some simple calculations on the real (after-inflation) budget growth between FY2006 and (proposed) FY2008, and also between FY2001 and FY2008. He concludes:
Being a perpetual Panglossian, I'm just happy that he's holding himself to six beers, rather than upping the ante to ten. But other than that, Stephen's on target.
The second article is from David Boaz, who's also unimpressed with both the proposed budget, and the headlines it's garnered in the MSM. (E.g., the Boston Globe: "Bush budget puts pinch on domestic spending") Quoting from an older article of his:
That's a broad bipartisan consensus! A uniter, not a divider!