Obama's Budget Vote: Poised To Pass House, Senate (AP)

[jefferson_dem]

Obama's Budget Vote: Poised To Pass House, Senate
ANDREW TAYLOR | April 2, 2009 07:36 AM EST |

WASHINGTON — Democrats controlling the House and Senate are on track to give President Barack Obama a key victory today by adopting slightly pared-back versions of his $3.6 trillion budget.

Passage of the companion plans, expected Thursday, would provide the young administration with a symbolic boost, even though the budget blueprints provide little guidance on how to craft subsequent Obama initiatives to reshape the U.S. health care system or combat global warming.

House Democrats are pressing a plan to make it easier to use "fast-track" rules to expedite passage of health care legislation backed by Obama, even as their GOP rivals in the Senate won a key vote Wednesday emphatically rejecting such an approach on global warming.

Republicans in both chambers are putting forward alternatives that are more generous with tax cuts and stingier with spending, but none of the plans _ Obama's, House and Senate Democrats', or the competing GOP outlines _ would succeed in tamping down the deficit much below $500 billion within five years.

Congressional budget resolutions are nonbinding blueprints that set the parameters for legislation to follow. Unlike budget resolutions typically advanced in the first years of a presidency, the 2010 budget plans are remarkably light on detail, offering little guidance on how to pay for a health care overhaul or an extension of Obama's signature $400 tax credit for most workers.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/02/obamas-budget-vote-poised_n_182185.html

[Thrill]

1. After hearing Mark Warner on MSNBC, it sounds like the Blue Pups are all on board

[jefferson_dem]

2. That's good news.

I guess the threat of using "reconciliation" was enough to drag them on board.