As a rule, conservatives are pretty sold on President Bush. But one nagging problem they've had with him has been his huge budgets.

Well, now they're starting to get their wish. The 2006 Bush budget decreases certain social programs, subsidies, and entitlements while boosting defense spending. The much-maligned deficit will be cut in half, by the administration's figures, by 2009.

Mr. Bush even had the political gonads to virtually eliminate that perennial budget leech, Amtrak.

Gnomon is disappointed, though, that the Hubble Space Telescope was cut. Until we get something better up, we feel it more than justifies its existence by the constant stream of discoveries it beams down.

Still, it is a much leaner budget, and a step in the right direction. Why, if we didn't know better, we might almost think it was written by... Ronald Reagan.