. February 6, 2006 SouthAmerica: How much money the US government will piss away in 2006 â2007? Bush's budget: $2.7 trillion dollars + Iraq, Afghanistan + cost related to the new Katrinas of 2006 = total $ 3.3 trillion dollars. ****** Bush's budget: $2.7 trillion U.S. Calls for huge defence spending hikes Foes call plans `detached from reality' Feb. 6, 2006. By MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP - ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTONâU.S. President George W. Bush today is set to unveil a $2.7 trillion (U.S.) budget that calls for big spending increases in defence and homeland security and other favoured programs such as scientific research, education and energy. Bush's blueprint being submitted to Congress today also proposes shrinking or eliminating 141 programs while achieving $36 billion in Medicare savings over the next five years. The plan for the budget year that begins Oct. 1 lays out a path to achieving two of the president's chief domestic goals: making permanent his first-term tax cuts, which are set to expire after 2010, and cutting the deficit in half by 2009, the year Bush will leave office. Details about the plan come from public statements, such as Bush's State of the Union address last week, and interviews with officials familiar with the budget proposal who spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not want pre-empt the president's announcement. The budget's arrival on Capitol Hill will set off months of intense debate, made even more contentious by congressional elections in November in which Democrats want to wrest congressional control from the Republicans. While Congress is expected to reshape Bush's proposals significantly, Republicans voiced support for the blueprint's objectives. "The American people know that our government's too big and it spends too much. And they expect Congress to do something about it," newly elected Republican House Majority Leader John Boehner said on NBC's Meet the Press. Democrats sought to portray it as an election-year campaign document rather than an honest effort to deal with exploding deficits. The budget proposal's release comes only weeks before the U.S. national debt will hit the current limit of $8.18 trillion, requiring Congress to vote for an increase to keep the government operating. "This budget is just detached from reality. The debt is exploding and the president isn't facing up to it," said Senator Kent Conrad, the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee. The administration has said the deficit for this year will top $400 billion, compared with last year's $319 billion. The costs of fighting in Iraq and rebuilding the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast have pushed government spending higher than anticipated. The administration also will seek an additional $120 billion to help pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year and the early part of 2007. .