| President Bush's plans to reduce the explosive growth of Medicaid, the government insurance program for the poor, ran into a roadblock on Thursday when the Senate voted to strip its 2006 budget of all proposed Medicaid cuts. But in a surprise move, the Senate voted to approve $34 billion more in tax cuts than Mr. Bush requested.
"It provided a huge amount of tax cuts," said Senator Pete Domenici, Republican of New Mexico and one of a handful of members of his party to vote against the tax cuts. "We didn't know what we were doing." |
Should be quite interesting to see how Bush handles this one. His Social Security destruction plan is going nowhere fast, and now... his pathetic attempts to the budget deficit have been stopped in their tracks.
Oh wait... We already have his initial reaction!
| With the two chambers so far apart on spending reductions, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, Jim Nussle, Republican of Iowa, warned that reconciling the two documents would prove difficult.
"We have arguably our work cut out for us now," Mr. Nussle said. He characterized the Medicaid vote as a setback for Mr. Bush's domestic agenda, suggesting that "the momentum" of the entire package, including spending control, Social Security and tax code changes, was now at stake. "If the Senate is not going to follow in the first item on the president's agenda," he said, "then that is, I think, a signal that the president needs to receive and react to immediately." Mr. Bush praised the House budget in a statement, saying, "It closely follows my budget proposal and reflects our shared commitment to be wise with the people's money and restrain spending in Washington." He did not comment on the action in the Senate. |
Brilliant. He didn't even mention it. That seems like a strategy that's bound to succeed. Nice one, Mr. President! Way to get out in front and lead!
But seriously folks... The GOP plan for reducing the federal deficit is to cut medical care to the poor while simultaneously cutting taxes? How very Christian of them! "What you have done to the least of me..." and all that good stuff.
Finally, don't forget that in all of this the fate of ANWR also hangs in the balance.
These negotiations should prove riveting, no doubt.
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