This budget funds our needs without the fat. The Ex-Im Bank cut has attracted immediate opposition from business community. U.S. Chamber of Commerce Vice President Bruce Josten says American exporters will have trouble competing against foreign companies that receive subsidies from their governments. President Bush's spokesman, Ari Fleisher, says this is an example of the White House effort to trim the fat from government. It's a classic example of when Washington says we're going to fund something for one year, or two years or three years, it's funded forever.
Programs never go away in Washington and that's one of the reasons the government is so big.
In Washington, I'm John Dimsdale for Marketplace. The Securities and Exchange Commission could end up drawing one of those budgetary short straws. President Bush's spending plan calls for cutting staff in securities fraud investigations and enforcement, even though the SEC has warned that the current volatile stock market climate encourages that abuse. Peru is grappling with the fallout from Sunday's presidential election. The middle class's hopes for Lourdes Flores were crushed by Alan Garcia, who now faces a run-off election with the front runner Alejandro Toledo.