Civil Works and Loans Targeted in Bush Plan President Bush's budget includes proposals to cut hundreds of millions of dollars for rural development, loan guarantees for small businesses, research on advanced technology, public housing and construction of the international space station. The cuts would affect programs at the Departments of Commerce, Agriculture, Energy and Transportation, as well as the Small Business Administration. In addition, Mr. Bush's budget shows that he wants to slow the growth of Medicare, slicing about 5 percent from the amounts that would be spent under current law in the coming decade. He did not say how he would achieve those savings, other than to promise that he would "modernize and reform Medicare," the health insurance program for 39 million people who are elderly or disabled. While Mr. Bush did propose a substantial increase in spending for the Education Department, Democrats said it was a much smaller increase than Congress approved for the current year. By the administration's reckoning, the department's budget would rise 11.5 percent, to $44.5 billion in 2002, compared with an increase of 35.7 percent this year. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/01/politics/01CUTS.html?pagewanted=all