Sag Harbor

Democrats are proposing a deal that would add billions of dollars a year to the federal budget for the military, homeland security and education. They somehow plan to balance the budget and keep the deficit at bay in the mean time. Many political experts are putting down the proposal, saying that it’s impossible to do both unless they plan on cutting programs and raising taxes. Election time is coming up and president Bush sees this as a ploy to try and get votes.

In putting the agenda together, Democrats dropped several proposals that proved too controversial or costly, such as broad and expensive relief from the alternative minimum tax, which threatens to raise taxes on middle-income earners; filling a major gap, or “doughnut hole,” in prescription-drug coverage under Medicare, which would cost $427 billion over 10 years; and rolling back Bush’s tax cuts for wealthy Americans.

The final product contains plenty of pricey measures, including a commitment to “rebuild a state-of-the-art military capable of projecting power wherever necessary.” The plan would also double the size of the military’s special forces.

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