Bush: End earmarks, cut entitlements

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush Tuesday urged Congress to balance the budget, end unnecessary earmarks and reform entitlement programs.

In his State of the Union address, Bush said spending reforms are needed to keep the U.S. economy strong while still providing the funding necessary for the global war on terror.

Bush earlier this month promised to issue a five-year spending plan that would produce a balanced budget by 2012. Bush said he already has cut the deficit in half -- three years ahead of schedule -- but more needs to be done to prevent the waste of billions of tax dollars.

Bush noted earmarks have tripled in the last decade, sans public or legislative scrutiny. He called for a reduction in earmarks by 50 percent by the end of the current Congress.

"Over 90 percent of earmarks never make it to the floor of the House and Senate -- they are dropped into committee reports that are not even part of the bill that arrives on my desk," Bush said.

"You did not vote them into law. I didn't sign them into law. Yet they are treated as if they have the force of law. The time has come to end this practice."

Bush said Congress can no longer ignore the necessity of reforming entitlement programs -- Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid -- to keep them from bankrupting the country.

"Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid are commitments of conscience -- and so it is our duty to keep them permanently sound," he said.