Yahoo! News - Senate Kills All Medicaid Cuts From Budget
OMG they did something right for a change. But only for a second it appears.

WASHINGTON - The Senate voted Thursday to strip all proposed Medicaid cuts from the $2.6 trillion budget for next year, jeopardizing the heart of the plan's deficit reduction in an embarrassing setback to President Bush and Republican leaders.

The change, whose chief sponsor was moderate Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., was approved 52-48 after days of heavy lobbying by both sides. It was widely seen as a test of the GOP-run Congress' taste for making even moderate reductions in popular benefit programs that consume two-thirds of the budget and are growing rapidly.

The Medicaid cuts could still be revived when the House and Senate try writing a compromise budget next month. The more conservative House approved a budget Thursday by 218-214 that is tougher on domestic spending than the Senate is, including up to $20 billion in Medicaid savings.

Smith did not rule out living with a compromise, telling reporters after the vote, "We have to have a budget. I'm going to vote for the budget."

Generally following the approach Bush charted in his budget last month, both chambers' fiscal outlines would cut a wide range of domestic programs in an effort to reduce slowly deficits that soared to a record $412 billion last year. Defense and domestic anti-terrorism programs would get increased funds.

In addition, Bush wants five-year tax cuts totaling $100 billion. The House budget makes room for $106 billion in tax cuts, the more moderate Senate $70 billion.

Hey, guys and gals, here's a radical idea- How about scaling back on the TAX CUTS instead of taking food out of the mouths of children and medicine out of the hands of the sick, hmmm? Wouldn't that be a NOVEL idea?