Tough talk, but not enough to reassure the world that US public finances are in safe hands: the White House budget does mark a departure from the spendthrift ways of George W. Bush's first term as president. Planned cuts in non-security discretionary programmes will cause real pain - if they survive Congress. But even quite savage cuts to limited categories of spending will do little to restore America's long-term fiscal health. The bigger questions of what to do about taxes, military spending, Social Security and Medicare remain unanswered.

Republicans claim that Mr Bush's earlier decision to slash taxes and push the US deep into deficit was part of a strategy to "starve the beast" - force reductions in government spending by denying it resources. This justification flies in the face of the first-term record: the president spent freely, and not just on defence. But yesterday's budget suggests the administration does at least want to appear willing to take tough decisions to shrink government to fit its straitened circumstances.