NYT: Senate Budget Shows Signs of G.O.P. Strain With Bush

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Senate Budget Shows Signs of G.O.P. Strain With Bush
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

Published: March 19, 2005


WASHINGTON, March 18 - In its last-minute flurry of votes before approving a budget Thursday night, the Senate added $5.4 billion in education spending for 2006 - just one more sign, members of both parties said on Friday, that President Bush could not get all he wanted on Capitol Hill despite the strengthened Republican majority.

Mr. Bush had sought to impose strict spending restraints on lawmakers, and the weeklong budget debate was a test of his strength on Capitol Hill. The $2.57 trillion Senate budget resolution, which differs sharply from the budget passed by the House, gave Mr. Bush much of what he asked for: tax cut extensions, a provision allowing oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, cuts in farm subsidies and reductions in the growth of some entitlement programs.

But on some key votes, enough Senate Republicans joined Democrats to defy the president. In a blow to Mr. Bush, the Senate stripped from the budget all $14 billion in proposed spending cuts in Medicaid. Senators also restored $2 billion in cuts to a popular urban renewal program and approved the extra money for education, to help middle-class families pay for college....

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The budget resolution sets tax and spending guidelines, but Congress has been unable to pass a budget for two of the last three years. This year, passing one is essential for the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill. With the federal deficit at a record high, President Bush and Republicans have campaigned on a theme of fiscal responsibility, and failure to pass a budget resolution would be an embarrassment to the White House and Congress.

At the same time, there will be real consequences for the Republican agenda. The budget provides procedural protections that enable lawmakers to adopt the tax-cut extensions, reduce entitlement spending and open the Arctic refuge to oil drilling without the threat of a filibuster in the Senate. If the budget does not pass, those measures are all but doomed....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/19/politics/19budget.html