March 17, 2005
BLESSED CLARITY:
Senate Kills All Medicaid Cuts From Budget (ALAN FRAM, 3/17/05, AP)
The Senate voted Thursday to strip all proposed Medicaid cuts from the $2.6 trillion budget for next year, killing the heart of the plan's deficit reduction and dealing an embarrassing setback to President Bush and Republican leaders.The amendment, whose chief sponsor was moderate Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., was approved 52-48 after days of heavy lobbying by both sides. It was widely seen as a test of the GOP-run Congress' taste for making even moderate reductions in popular benefit programs that consume two-thirds of the budget and are growing rapidly, even at a time of record federal deficits.
So much for their complaints that the budget isn't balanced. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 17, 2005 4:49 PM
RINOS need to suffer some consequences when they don't support the president's initiatives. This is outrageous.
Posted by: erp at March 17, 2005 5:35 PMRINOS need to suffer some consequences when they don't support the president's initiatives. This is outrageous.
Posted by: erp at March 17, 2005 5:35 PMI smell a veto.
Nothing less will stop the pork mongers, because their argument now is that if the President isn't going to restrain spending (i.e., no vetoes), then why should they?
But the RINOs are just scared. Too scared to restrain, too scared of losing the next election, and too scared of principle.
Bush should find a way to get some Democrat like John Spratt to stand beside him and push for smaller increases. If not, do what Ronald Reagan wouldn't do: address a joint session, hoist the budget up above the lectern, and throw it into the well of the House. As the paper flutters, tell the American people no budget will pass that spends a dollar more than the previous year. Even Andrew Sullivan would appreciate that kind of theater.
Posted by: jim hamlen at March 17, 2005 8:30 PMAs the paper flutters, tell the American people no budget will pass that spends a dollar more than the previous year.
I haven't checked it recently, but it's probably still true: since the federal government's income and expenses are both on an upward track, simply freezing spending for about 5 years would eliminate the deficit.
Posted by: PapayaSF at March 17, 2005 9:03 PMwell the democratic brain trust has done it again; nice work removing all issues involving fiscal responsibility from contention, in 2008. with any luck, some of these limp-wick republicans will get a nice strong (stiff?) primary challenge to boot.
Posted by: cjm at March 17, 2005 9:56 PMIf he threw it he might kill somebody. It is something like 1000 pages.
Posted by: Gideon at March 18, 2005 12:32 AMThis is nice politics. The president doesn't particularly care about deficits, but has been criticized for this from the left and the right. So he sends Congress a budget with real cuts -- which necessarily have to come from popular "entitlement" programs because that's where the money is. Congress balks, and the president gains cover from the deficit hawks.
Posted by: David Cohen at March 18, 2005 7:42 AMBring back the line-item veto, this time as a Constitutional Amendment.
Posted by: at March 18, 2005 8:59 AM