Senate Panel Pares Down Bush Budget

A Senate panel Thursday approved a scaled-back version of President Bush’s budget, shorn of signature initiatives such as tax relief and cuts to federal benefit programs such as Medicare.

With Republicans nervous about cutting popular programs in an election year and nursing wounds from a bruising round of benefit cuts last year, the Budget Committee gave party-line 11-to-10 approval to a budget that takes few risks and makes little progress in addressing the long-term fiscal problems facing the government.

Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) dropped Bush’s proposals for expanding tax-free medical accounts and restraining Medicare spending.

The measure heads to the Senate floor Monday, but with election-year anxiety running high, there’s no guarantee the full Senate will actually pass the GOP budget blueprint.

“I’m not going in with the votes, I can tell you that much,” Gregg said. “There’s a high level of angst and indecision out there.”

For starters, five Republicans opposed to oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge have warned Gregg they will probably oppose his plan, which includes a provision to permit drilling piggybacked onto the filibuster-proof budget process.

There are 55 Republicans in the Senate, which means no additional defections could occur if the bill is to squeak through with Vice President Dick Cheney casting a tie-breaking vote.

Democrats castigated Gregg’s plan, saying it leaves out ongoing costs of the Iraq war and the cost of establishing Bush’s Social Security personal accounts. They also said it failed to address the ever-increasing effects that the alternative minimum tax had on middle-class taxpayers.

“Now is the time that cries out for bold action,” said Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.). “We need to reduce our deficits and rein in the exploding debt that continues under this plan.”

Most of the Democratic amendments offered Thursday would have increased spending on a variety of programs, including veterans’ medical care, port security and firefighter grants.