WASHINGTON -- The White House yesterday sent Congress a truckload of President Bush's spending blueprint for the next fiscal year, a massive $2.4 trillion proposal that does not include potential expenses for Iraq or Afghanistan but calls for "sacrifice across the board" in most domestic programs.

Susan Walsh, Associated Press President Bush, flanked by Secretary of State Colin Powell, meets with his Cabinet at the White House yesterday after sending Congress a $2.4 trillion election-year budget. During the brief time reporters were allowed to be present, Bush said he was confident, if reelected, he will be able to cut this year's $521 billion deficit in half by 2009. Click photo for larger image. Related story Bush's budget cuts placating his conservative base

Immediately denounced by Democrats, the budget also reveals this year's deficit is expected to be a record $521 billion.

As was true last year, the proposal would make big winners of defense (a 7 percent increase) and homeland security (a 10 percent hike) in the constant battle for bucks on Capitol Hill.

But the proposal could be dead on arrival; the sniper fire aimed at it during an election year, from some conservative Republicans as well as Democrats, was widespread. The 2005 fiscal year begins Oct. 1, a month before the November presidential election.

At a White House briefing, officials pledged to cut the budget deficit in half by 2009. But that assumes no substantial spending for Iraq and Afghanistan after this year, rapid economic growth, no recessions and no major spending increases for other programs.

Last year Bush asked Congress for an additional $87 billion for Iraq that was not in the budget. He may have to ask for as much as an additional $50 billion next year.

Democrats on the House Budget Committee ridiculed the proposal, saying that the administration already has added $1.7 trillion to the national debt and should not be entrusted to add more. They noted Bush assumes $1.3 billion will be raised from drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, although Congress has so far refused to agree to that.

At a Cabinet meeting opened briefly to reporters so Bush could comment on the budget, the president yesterday said he was confident, if reelected, he will be able to cut this year's $521 billion deficit in half by 2009.

Bush defended the red-ink spending saying that the recession, the 9/11 attack and the war in Iraq are "high hurdles for a budget and for a country to overcome."

Because he wants to make permanent his recent tax cuts, now set to expire within five years, Bush has proposed cuts in most domestic programs, with environmental programs, transportation and aid to small businesses cut the most. Seven of the 16 Cabinet-level agencies would get significant cuts in spending.

Joshua Bolten, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, told reporters the proposal would "terminate" 65 government programs, including 38 education programs, including the $247 million Even Start family literacy program, at a savings next year of $4.9 billion, and make deep cuts in 63 other programs.

Only a few agencies would get a significant boost in spending. NASA, entrusted with Bush's new emphasis on going back to the moon and then to Mars, would get $16.2 billion next year, up about six percent.

The National Endowment for the Arts, Bush's proposal to set up job training programs in community colleges, just announced during his trip to Toledo, and the No Child Left Behind Act are some of few programs slated to get new money.

Programs hit hardest would be those at the Agriculture Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, followed by programs within the Departments of Health and Human Services, Transportation, Treasury, Justice and Commerce. The General Services Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Small Business Administration all are slated for deep cuts.

The White House revealed last week that the estimate of the recently enacted Medicare prescription drug benefit would cost $534 billion over ten years, not $400 billion.

Democrats took issue with several main assumptions by the White House. The budget assumes that the growing economy will punch tax revenues up by 13.2 percent, which critics say is too high a projection. Critics also called making tax cuts permanent too costly, at least $900 billion over the next ten years.

In addition to making the recent tax cuts permanent, Bush proposes to let individuals put as much as $5,000 a year with new tax incentives into individual retirement savings accounts and also into lifetime savings accounts if Congress approves.

The nation's low savings rate is a constant source of worry to economists, but some critics said a lifetime savings account, which could be dipped into for various expenses, would not encourage long-range savings. After Bush proposed similar savings accounts last year, Congress considered them but failed to pass them.

Most of the Democratic presidential candidates on the campaign trail denounced the budget proposal as fiscally risky, and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass, called Bush's proposal the "most anti-family, anti-worker, anti-health care, anti-education budget in modern times.''

The Blue Dog Coalition, which is made up 36 conservative and moderate Democrats who call themselves fiscal hawks, said its members were "outraged by the ballooning deficit spending along with the administration's blatant disregard for fiscally responsible policies.''

A number of Republicans also said they were uncomfortable with the growing deficits. Bolten countered that a $521 billion deficit, which is 4.5 percent of gross domestic product, "is not historically out of range. Deficits have been this large, or larger, in six of the last 25 years, including a peak of 6 percent in 1983.''

He said it was important for Congress to reinstitute statutory budget enforcement mechanisms as the White House is proposing in order to cut the deficit in half in five years.

"The president proposes, the Congress disposes,'' he said. As for most domestic programs that aren't proposed for elimination, he said, they will have to endure "belt-tightening" or "sacrifice across the board.''

Rep. Don Nickles, R-Okla., chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said that $500 billion deficits are "not acceptable'' and that the deficits must be cut in half. He added, "This is a very difficult challenge but we're going to try to work together.''