WASHINGTON – President Bush will today deliver his tightest budget since arriving in office, with cuts to many government programs in an effort to reduce the budget deficit that has accumulated under his administration.

The $2.5 trillion spending plan is expected to propose an increase in military and homeland security spending, but it would cut other government programs, including grants to local law enforcement, firefighters, and Amtrak, and Medicare funding, agricultural subsidies, and environmental protection.

Vice President Cheney said yesterday that cuts to more than 150 programs are planned, but that the budget was “not prepared with a meat ax.”

“We are being tight,” Mr. Cheney said. “This is the tightest budget that has been submitted since we got here,” he told “Fox News Sunday.”

Mr. Bush has pledged to hold discretionary spending below the rate of inflation and to cut the deficit in half by 2009. The deficit is projected to reach $427 billion for fiscal year 2005. He has also said he would make his tax cuts permanent.

Democrats have criticized the president’s focus on cutting various social programs while preserving tax cuts. Senator Schumer called some of the expected cuts “immoral.”

The budget is also not expected to contain the president’s Social Security proposal, nor the costs of the Iraq war. Mr. Bush has said he will request an additional $80 billion from Congress on top of the $25 billion already appropriated by Congress for the war. The money will be used in part to equip U.S. troops and three new Army brigades, and to accelerate the training of Iraqi forces, Mr. Bush has said.

Democrats have called on the president to include both costs in his budget.

“If the rumors are true, and neither Social Security nor the Iraq war is in the budget, then how can Congress evaluate it if the president’s most important domestic and foreign policy plans aren’t there?” said Dan Maffei, a spokesman for Rep. Charles Rangel, a Democrat of Harlem.

“It would have been like holding the Super Bowl without Donovan McNabb and Tom Brady,” Mr. Maffei added.

Mr. Bush will request an additional $19 billion for the Department of Defense over its budget this year, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press. The request totals $419.3 billion, an increase of 4.8%. Defense spending would grow gradually under his plan, to more than $500 billion by 2011.

Mr. Cheney said yesterday that overall spending increases in the budget would be kept below 2.3%. He said the proposed cuts are “fair, reasonable, responsible.”

“It’s not something we’ve done with a meat ax, nor are we suddenly turning our backs on the most needy people in our society,” he said.

But Senator Schumer said he was concerned about proposed cuts to federal student aid and to a $2.2 billion program that provides low-income people with assistance in paying their heating bills – which he said largely would affect the elderly.

The reduction would be “wrongheaded and inappropriate, especially as the OPEC cartel continues to jack up oil prices,” Mr. Schumer said over the weekend.

Mr. Bush’s plan would also cut the budget of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by 9%, to $6.9 billion, according to the AP.

However, Mr. Bush would commit an addition $304 million to community health centers that serve the poor. The budget for the centers would grow to over $2 billion as part of his plan to provide a center to every poor county, the documents said.

Mr. Schumer said the cuts were “immoral” because they would hurt the nation’s ability to respond to bioterrorist attacks and deadly diseases

Likewise, the reported proposal to eliminate the Perkin’s Loan program would “rip the rug out from under” students, while the costs of tuition and college textbooks exceed the cost of inflation, Mr. Schumer said.

Mr. Bush will also propose to reduce a $600 million grant program for local police agencies to $60 million next year, according to the AP documents. Grants to local firefighters, for which Congress provided $715 million this year, would fall to $500 million.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s $8.1 billion budget would be cut by 6%, with most of the reductions coming in water programs and projects won by lawmakers for their home districts.

Democrats have blamed Mr. Bush’s tax cuts for turning surpluses into deficits. But Mr. Bush said yesterday that tax cuts will improve the nation’s finances because they will encourage economic growth.

“In the long run, the best way to reduce the deficit is to grow the economy. And we will take steps to make the American economy stronger, more innovative, and more competitive,” Mr. Bush said in a radio address on Saturday.

Whether Congress will swallow Mr. Bush’s proposed cuts is unclear.

Last year, lawmakers passed only a handful of the cuts proposed by the administration.

For example, Mr. Bush will propose eliminating $300 million that the government gives to states for incarcerating illegal aliens who commit crimes. He has made the proposal in the past and Congress has ignored it.

On Friday, New Jersey’s two senators and acting Governor Codey asked Mr. Bush not to cut federal subsidies for Amtrak, saying any reduction would have disastrous effects for their state’s commuters.