WSJ: Budget Vote a "Significant Victory"

From the Wall Street Journal: 

The House and Senate Thursday approved their versions of a fiscal 2010 budget that included President Barack Obama's biggest priorities, giving the president a significant victory as he works to shift the government's direction from the Bush era.

Democrats made some changes in Mr. Obama's $3.6 trillion budget, but kept intact the core of Mr. Obama's plans for increased spending on health care, energy and education, setting up fierce fights on those issues later this year.

...The House and Senate now must craft a compromise. Along with the $787 billion stimulus enacted in February, the approval of the 2010 budget by both chambers is a substantial boost to the president's agenda.

From the New York Times:

Democrats said the two budgets, which will have to be reconciled after a two-week Congressional recess, cleared the way for health care, energy and education overhauls pushed by the new president. The Democrats said the budgets reversed what they portrayed as the failed economic approach of the Bush administration and Republican-led Congresses.

“This responsible budget will start cleaning up the mistakes of the past and make critical investments in our future,” Senator Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada and the majority leader, said.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said Democrats would like to find consensus with Republicans, but not at the expense of the infusion of federal money that the majority calls crucial in a time of economic distress.

“The American people want us to find our common ground where we can, but they did not send us here to split the difference,” Ms. Pelosi said. “They want real change, and we have come here to make a difference.”

POLITICO also noted that despite the fact that no Republican in either chamber voted for the budget: 

...the 233-196 House vote surpassed the size of budget victories for either party over the last decade. And Democrats lost only two of their members on the 55-43 vote in the Senate.

Congress is now in recess until Monday, April 20th.

Comments (1) «

I guess we will have to wait two weeks before we find out the results

1

healthy on April 3, 2009 at 08:46 PM

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