Dark Bilious Vapors

In Search of Budget Moderates from the NY Times editorial pages writes this:

”...Congress is likely to approve a budget blueprint this week that manages to be profligate and mean-spirited at the same time. Nominally the product of a conference between both parties in both chambers, the budget nearing final consideration is in fact a Republican document that is expected to add at least $125 billion to the federal budget deficit in the next five years. It calls for generous tax cuts for investors, who hardly need more help, and for harsh spending cuts for the needy, who certainly do.

The agreement sets overall totals for tax cuts and spending cuts; the specific measures will come later. But the aim is to ensure that spending on Medicaid and other programs for the poor will be cut by $17 billion over five years, which is more than the Bush administration requested. It is also more than the Senate sought in its version of the budget resolution. In the conference, however, the House bid up the Senate's cuts for the poor, while the Senate increased the House's gifts to the rich. The result is expected to guarantee the passage of tax cuts that would cost $70 billion over the next five years, $25 billion more than the House approved for its highest-priority tax cuts. Those cuts are all but certain to include the extension of low tax rates for dividends and capital gains, which almost entirely benefit people who make more than $200,000 a year...."

Karen on 04.27.05 @ 06:31 AM CST