US President George W. Bush holds a copy of the 2008 Fiscal Budget during a meeting with his cabinet as Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson (L) looks on in the Cabinet Room of the White House. (Xinhua/AFP Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President George W. Bush on Monday submitted to Congress a 2.9 trillion dollars spending plan for fiscal 2008 that balances increased military spending with restrain in health care and other nondefense programs.

    The budget, the first in which Bush will present his request to a Democratic Congress, requested 481 billion dollars for the regular Pentagon budget, a rise of about 11.3 percent.

    Bush also requested 145 billion dollars for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan next year, and an additional 100 billion dollars for the current fiscal year that ends on Sept.30. Some 70 billion dollars was earmarked last year for this year's war spending in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    The U.S. will have spent 661.9 billion dollars on military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and related activities if the requests are approved by Congress.

    On the domestic front, the Bush administration would slash spending for Medicare and Medicaid, the federal government's health programs for the elderly and the poor, by 78 billion dollars over five years.

    Bush urged Congress to allow his 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent and said it would produce a 61 billion dollars surplus in 2012. The US fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30.

    "Our economy is strong because of good policy and because the entrepreneurial spirit is strong," said Bush. "By keeping taxes down, we actually generate strong revenues to the Treasury."

    "I strongly believe Congress needs to listen to a budget which has no tax increase, and a budget, because of fiscal discipline, that can be balanced in five years," said Bush.

    Democrats and some media blasted those proposals, noting that the Republican-controlled Congress last year did not approve much smaller reductions in federal health-care spending.

    The cut in health care would provide insufficient extra cash to maintain coverage for poor children currently enrolled in the Children's Health Insurance Program, said a report by Monday's The Washington Post

    "Rather than trying to solve our health care crisis by lowering costs and covering more people, the President's plan will make the crisis worse by raising costs and failing to cover those who need it most -- our nation's children," Sen. Edward M. Kennedy said in a statement.

    "America has spent almost 400 billion dollars on this (Iraq) war, too much of which has been wasted on boondoggles like Olympic-sized swimming pools in unused multi-million dollar training camps in the desert," Democratic Senate majority leader Harry Reid said.