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Senate votes to boost aid in Pakistan
Associated Press
Issue date: 4/2/09 Section: News
WASHINGTON - The Senate on Wednesday voted to boost aid to Pakistan and increase funds for security along the U.S.-Mexico border, but rejected a Republican attempt to freeze spending on domestic programs.
As lawmakers continued work on a $3.5 trillion budget blueprint for the upcoming fiscal year, the Senate was poised to vote on whether to move quickly on President Barack Obama's controversial "cap-and-trade" plan to combat global warming. The so-called fast-track procedure would allow Democrats to move the measure through the Senate without Republican votes.
The Senate was expected to reject the process.
By voice vote, the Senate approved a plan by Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., to add $550 million to the homeland security budget to protect areas along the U.S.-Mexico border from violent drug cartels. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., won adoption of a $4 billion increase next year in aid to Pakistan, a key ally in the war against al-Qaida.
But Democrats easily rejected a bid by Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., to freeze domestic spending at 2008 levels. The vote was 58-40.
On the global warming effort, Republicans fear that Democrats will use filibuster-proof rules to push through the cap-and-trade legislation later this year. Under cap-and-trade, the government would auction permits to emit heat-trapping gases, with the costs being passed on to consumers via higher gasoline and electric bills.
Several moderate Democrats oppose the plan.
In the House, Republicans unveiled a budget plan that would gradually eliminate the traditional fee-for-service Medicare program, offering a stark - and politically problematic - alternative to blueprints offered by Obama and his Democratic allies.
The plan would have future Medicare beneficiaries - people 54 and younger - enroll in private health insurance plans and receive a subsidy on their premiums. Benefits would not be changed for people in the program or those 55 or older.
"If we don't reform our entitlement programs, they go bankrupt and people's benefits get cut automatically," said Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the top Republican on the House Budget Committee.
Democrats warned that the GOP proposal would result in sharply higher costs for the elderly as the value of the subsidy fails to keep up with health care inflation.
As lawmakers continued work on a $3.5 trillion budget blueprint for the upcoming fiscal year, the Senate was poised to vote on whether to move quickly on President Barack Obama's controversial "cap-and-trade" plan to combat global warming. The so-called fast-track procedure would allow Democrats to move the measure through the Senate without Republican votes.
The Senate was expected to reject the process.
By voice vote, the Senate approved a plan by Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., to add $550 million to the homeland security budget to protect areas along the U.S.-Mexico border from violent drug cartels. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., won adoption of a $4 billion increase next year in aid to Pakistan, a key ally in the war against al-Qaida.
But Democrats easily rejected a bid by Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., to freeze domestic spending at 2008 levels. The vote was 58-40.
On the global warming effort, Republicans fear that Democrats will use filibuster-proof rules to push through the cap-and-trade legislation later this year. Under cap-and-trade, the government would auction permits to emit heat-trapping gases, with the costs being passed on to consumers via higher gasoline and electric bills.
Several moderate Democrats oppose the plan.
In the House, Republicans unveiled a budget plan that would gradually eliminate the traditional fee-for-service Medicare program, offering a stark - and politically problematic - alternative to blueprints offered by Obama and his Democratic allies.
The plan would have future Medicare beneficiaries - people 54 and younger - enroll in private health insurance plans and receive a subsidy on their premiums. Benefits would not be changed for people in the program or those 55 or older.
"If we don't reform our entitlement programs, they go bankrupt and people's benefits get cut automatically," said Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the top Republican on the House Budget Committee.
Democrats warned that the GOP proposal would result in sharply higher costs for the elderly as the value of the subsidy fails to keep up with health care inflation.
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