House budgeteers drop Bush's proposed cuts to Medicare

[CornField]

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20060329-1933-congress-budget.html

Bowing to election-year realities, a key House panel Wednesday dropped President Bush's proposed cuts to hospitals and other Medicare providers but preserved his plan to trim spending by most Cabinet agencies.

The $2.8 trillion plan approved by the Budget Committee late Wednesday on a party-line 22-17 vote omits Bush's cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, crop subsidies and other politically sensitive programs.

The GOP plan, written by Chairman Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, for the 2007 budget year beginning Oct. 1, adopts Bush's $873 billion cap on agency budgets renewed by Congress each year. But it also assumes just $50 billion for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, less than half the expected spending for military operations in those countries for the current year.

The plan endorses Bush's call for a 7 percent increase in the core defense budget – which doesn't include Iraq war costs – for next year. That increase comes at the expense of domestic programs like education, health research and grants to local governments and relief agencies.

(much more)

No doubt Nussle will be on the Iowa airwaves tomorrow. *sigh*