Senate Panel Drops Bush's Spending Cuts

[ProSense]

Senate Panel Drops Bush's Spending Cuts

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer
47 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - With many Republicans nervous about cutting popular programs in an election year, a key Senate panel is prepared to drop President Bush's proposals for politically painful cuts to Medicare, farm subsidies and food stamps.

And without spending cuts, a new round of tax cuts is also a nonstarter, stripping Bush's budget of two of its signature initiatives.

Instead, the Senate Budget Committee will re-ignite last year's bruising battle over allowing oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as it takes up its budget plan for next year.

While Bush's budget plan for next year takes its lumps, a key House panel is set to adopt his $67.6 billion request to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and $19.1 billion in new money for hurricane relief and rebuilding along the Gulf Coast.

more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060308/ap_on_go_co/congress_budget_3

[Mass]

1. ANWR again? Where will they stop?

Good news for the other programs. I understand that the Republicans did not want to go to the 2006 elections with spending cuts on these programs.

[ProSense]

2. Bush's request for a line item veto was a bluff.

What I want to know is this: Does this mean they have chickened out of the line item veto also? Are the Republicans still going to consider giving it to him so that he can cut these programs? He would never dare to because it's an election year, and Congress is hearing from voters. It's the reason they suddenly giving up on their economy-boosting tax cuts. Now that they've put these cuts back everybody wins, including all the pork project promoters. According to the article the line item veto is in question in the House bill. Adding back these cuts is easier than voting up or down on wasteful spending, but Bush's spending habits are still driving the debt sky high.

[msongs]

3. just pay AK senator stevens $10 billion to retire - would be a lot

cheaper to give him his reward up front and have him go away instead of rewarding him through anwar legislation.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/democratsmugs.htm