The Chopping Block.

Have you seen the list of 150 programs the Bush administration wants to eliminate in its fiscal 2006 budget? Me neither, and there's a good reason: OMB's not releasing it. For now, the administration's position is that such information is "interlineated throughout the budget," as OMB Director Joshua Bolten so wonderfully put it yesterday. You need to scour the document yourself to uncover the nuggets. GovExec's Amelia Gruber did just that yesterday, and came up with this list, for a start. It shows the 48 programs graded using the Bush team's Program Assesment Rating Tool that are zeroed out in the budget. But don't assume that's because the programs got bad grades. Lots did, but some didn't, and are being put on the chopping block because they don't square with the administration's priorities. HUD's National Community Development Initiative, for example, was rated "moderately effective," but still gets the ax. Education's GEAR UP program, aimed at getting low-income students ready for college, is performing adequately, OMB says, but still goes from $306 million to nothing in the budget. With a deficit as big as ours, you can't just take aim at the poor performers.