Spring Break
Dems turn back GOP call to reduce spending
Andrew Taylor - Associated Press
Issue date: 3/27/09 Section: News
WASHINGTON - Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee defeated a Republican attempt Thursday to reduce recommended spending across hundreds of programs over the next five years as they moved toward approval of a blueprint that preserves President Barack Obama's top priorities.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said his proposal would save $200 billion by freezing spending on non-defense domestic programs for the next two years and allowing modest increases in the future.
But Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., chairman of the committee, said it went too far, adding the budget he prepared already provides for less spending than the president wants.
The vote was a party-line 13-10.
A final vote on the budget was expected later in the day, hours after a House panel approved a similar version on a party-line vote.
The plans will go to the House and Senate floors next week over passionate protests from Republicans, who warn of big spending increases and record deficits. Those debates will test Obama's spending increases for domestic programs and the willingness of Democratic moderates to accept record deficits and rapidly growing debt.
But more significant challenges will come later in the year as general agreements on fighting global warming and boosting health care promise to be severely tested as details are penciled in.
Some Democrats are feeling anxiety over the deficit as well, forcing decisions in both houses to cut back big increases in some domestic programs and to drop Obama's signature $400 tax credit for most workers when it expires at the end of 2010.
Both the House and Senate budget plans lack specifics for any of the administration's signature proposals or even clues on how Democrats plan to accomplish goals like raising more than $1 trillion over the next decade to provide universal health coverage.
Curbing global warming is welcomed as a general goal, but both budget panels were careful to avoid endorsing Obama's controversial cap-and-trade system for auctioning pollution permits, which will raise energy costs for consumers and businesses.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said his proposal would save $200 billion by freezing spending on non-defense domestic programs for the next two years and allowing modest increases in the future.
But Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., chairman of the committee, said it went too far, adding the budget he prepared already provides for less spending than the president wants.
The vote was a party-line 13-10.
A final vote on the budget was expected later in the day, hours after a House panel approved a similar version on a party-line vote.
The plans will go to the House and Senate floors next week over passionate protests from Republicans, who warn of big spending increases and record deficits. Those debates will test Obama's spending increases for domestic programs and the willingness of Democratic moderates to accept record deficits and rapidly growing debt.
But more significant challenges will come later in the year as general agreements on fighting global warming and boosting health care promise to be severely tested as details are penciled in.
Some Democrats are feeling anxiety over the deficit as well, forcing decisions in both houses to cut back big increases in some domestic programs and to drop Obama's signature $400 tax credit for most workers when it expires at the end of 2010.
Both the House and Senate budget plans lack specifics for any of the administration's signature proposals or even clues on how Democrats plan to accomplish goals like raising more than $1 trillion over the next decade to provide universal health coverage.
Curbing global warming is welcomed as a general goal, but both budget panels were careful to avoid endorsing Obama's controversial cap-and-trade system for auctioning pollution permits, which will raise energy costs for consumers and businesses.
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