Will Senate vote to restore Dubya's Medicaid cut doom budget resolution?

[flpoljunkie]

Let's hope so! This will save ANWR. And remember there has been no budget resolution passed in the last two years. However, dubya may prefer more Medicaid money--our debt--to letting the potential oil profits from his buddies go by the wayside.


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/17/politics/17cnd-budget.html?hp&ex=1111122000&en=5dbca593f974150b&ei=5094&partner=homepage

March 17, 2005


Senate Votes to Restore $14 Billion in Medicaid Cuts
By DAVID STOUT

WASHINGTON, March 17 - The Senate voted this afternoon to restore some $14 billion in Medicaid cuts that had been proposed for the next five years, setting up a confrontation between the two houses of Congress over tax and spending policy.

The 52-to-48 vote to restore money to Medicaid, a federal-state program for poor people, came on an amendment offered by Senator Gordon H. Smith, Republican of Oregon. His was one of a long string of amendments being deliberated on the $2.6 trillion budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

The Senate action came as the House of Representatives was debating its own version of the budget. House Republican leaders, who have been arguing that the explosive growth of Medicaid must be reined in, had warned that passage of the Smith amendment would create a seemingly unbridgeable chasm between the chambers. House members were deliberating up to $20 billion in Medicaid cuts this afternoon.

<>Talk of cuts in Medicaid could still come up again as Senate and House leaders try to reconcile their separate budgets in the coming weeks. But for the moment, the approval of the Smith amendment was a setback for President Bush and for those Capitol Hill Republicans who have been calling for sharp cuts in spending in an era of rising budget deficits.

[BushIsBurning]

1. Let's Hope So !

[Idioteque]

2. The house only passed its budget by four votes.

House Budget Roll Call

Let's hope that the increased spending from the Senate ends up in the conference report and the conservatives in the House kill this ridiculous budget.

[flpoljunkie]

3. Dubya will accept whatever is necessary to keep ANWR drilling. We need

to make the price too much for House members and Senators to do a deal cause Dubya has never vetoed a bill and will be happy for taxpayers to be saddled with more debt.

An out of control deficit and federal debt has not bothered him a bit so far--why should he start being fiscally responsible now?