Budget Battle

Like us, you’re probably preoccupied with the War and the ominous news of Turkish and Iranian involvement. While all this is happening, though, our Congress is hard at work. The House passed the President’s tax cuts. The Senate debated the measure today. It looks as though ANWR drilling is out, to the relief of Democrats. A coalition of moderate Republicans and Democrats seeking to scale the tax cuts back from $726 billion to $350 billion was led by Senator John Breaux (D-LA), of all people. They failed, and it looks as though the Bush Administration will get most of what they wanted, except for $100 billion which Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) rescued for a special war reserve.