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The documents alone weigh nearly eleven pounds, and President Bush’s 2005 budget is drawing an equally heavy political response.

Democrats and some Republicans have tough words for the President’s spending plans. Some find fault with what has been left in — big spending on the military and homeland security, and permanent tax cuts. Others criticize what has been left out — that is any estimate for the cost of continued fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. But most criticism has to do with the budget’s bottom line — large and growing deficits far into the future.

But while some question the President’s math, others are praising his commitment to cutting domestic programs and investing in the defense of America at home and abroad.

Guests:

Stan Collender, General Manager of the Washington Office of Financial Dynamics

John Kasich, Republican Congressman from Ohio from 1983-2000, former Chair of the House Budget Committee

Congressman Mike Pence of Indiana.

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For two decades, Brazilian farmers have been listening to the United States promise that it will stop subsidizing its cotton farmers, but so far, that hasn’t happened.

In a bold move, Brazil is taking the U.S. to court at the World Trade Organization. Brazil says America is breaking the very rules of free trade that it promotes, and providing an unfair advantage to U.S. farmers in ways that make it impossible for others in the developing world to compete.

Emboldened by Brazil’s move, other countries including China, India and South Africa are signing on to this complaint, arguing that it’s time the United States started practicing what it preaches. We look at protectionism and poverty, in two perspectives from the two Americas.

Guests:

Shelton Wilder, cotton farmer from Longtown Tennessee

Joao luis – Pessa, cotton farmer from Primavera doLeste, Brazil;Aluisio De Lima Campos, economic advisor to the Brazilian Embassy

Gary Hufbauer, senior fellow, institution for International Economycs, Washington

Robert Goodman, extension agreicaltural economist at Auborn University in Alabama

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Despite a harsh dressing down by Lord Hutton, the British Broadcasting Corporation is nevertheless faring better than Tony Blair’s government in some British polls.

The Daily Telegraph reports that when asked who they trust, the BBC or the government, nearly 70 percent weighed in on the side of the broadcaster. But the positive polls numbers are cold comfort for a news organization that now finds itself rudderless in a stormy sea.

Its two top men, and the reporter at the center of the inquiry, have all resigned. Morale is at an all-time low. And the government-issued charter that keeps the BBC” on the air is up for renewal, a prospect that some fear may prompt payback from Tony Blair.

Guests:

Martin Bell, BBC foreign affairs correspondent from 1962 – 1997 and former MP

John Cassidy, staff writer for The New Yorker;