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Washington -- House Republicans, after weeks of negotiations, narrowly passed a budget bill early Friday to cut $50 billion from Medicaid, food stamps, student loans and other programs over the complaints of Democrats that Congress is squeezing students, the elderly and the poor to pay for tax cuts for the rich. The House approved the bill 217-215, after GOP leaders agreed to demands from moderate Republicans to jettison a measure to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and to slightly reduce proposed cuts to food stamps. Still, the vote was so politically sensitive that House leaders didn't begin debate until 10 p.m. Thursday and didn't pass the measure until nearly 2 a.m. -- when most news reporters gone and only a few C-SPAN junkies could witness the fiery floor action. No Democrats voted for the bill, and 14 Republicans opposed it. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco said in a floor speech that cutting money for Medicaid, child support enforcement and foster care as the House prepares to vote on $70 billion in tax cuts was a sin. Republicans are launching an attack on America's children, on America's families, Pelosi said. They are also launching an attack on America's middle class, all of this to give tax cuts to the wealthiest people in our country. But House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., responded that the proposed cuts were needed to rein in the growth of federal spending on health care and other programs. Medicaid is growing at a 7.3 percent growth rate per year, Hastert said. It has been growing for years. Is there a better way to do it? Is there a more efficient way to do it? Should we find some reforms to make it better? Yes, we should. The House bill also would split the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, a goal of conservatives who have long complained the court is too liberal. But the breakup of the appellate court, which covers the country's Western region including federal cases that arise in California, is not part of the Senate budget bill. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and senior members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are seeking to strip it from the final package. The battle over the budget reconciliation bill now moves to a joint House-Senate conference committee, where lawmakers will have to make several critical decisions, including: -- Will the final budget bill allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge? The Senate version would allow drilling, but a group of House Republican moderates has pledged to oppose any final bill that would open the Alaskan wildlife refuge for development. -- How deeply will lawmakers cut student loans? The House bill would cut student loan programs by $14.3 billion, while the Senate version cuts them by $8.8 billion. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the House bill would cause a typical college student with the average of $17,000 in student loans to pay an additional $5,800 in interest and fees over the length of the loans. -- Will some legal immigrants lose their food stamps? The House bill would cut off 220,000 people from food stamps by allowing legal immigrants to qualify for the food aid after seven years, instead of the current five years. The Senate bill does not cut food stamps, and moderate lawmakers are urging that it be dropped from the final budget package. -- How will the cuts affect Medicaid recipients? The House bill calls for $11.4 billion in cuts to Medicaid, while the Senate bill trims spending by only $4.3 billion. The House bill also would allow co-payments to rise over time with inflation and would deny Medicaid nursing home benefits to people with $750,000 in home equity. -- Will child support enforcement be cut? The House bill would slash funding for child support enforcement by $4.9 billion. The Senate did not include any cuts to child support enforcement. -- Will Medicare be cut? The Senate voted to eliminate $5.4 billion in subsidies for some regional insurance companies that agreed to participate in President Bush's Medicare prescription drug program. The House bill does not cut the subsidies. Congress watchers expect that lawmakers are likely to split the difference between the House's $50 billion in cuts over five years and the Senate's $35 billion in trims. But the negotiations will be difficult for GOP leaders. Conservatives, especially in the House, have been pushing for deeper cuts. Republican moderates plan to lobby to restore funding for some programs. House Republicans argue the heated rhetoric over the budget bill's effects is overblown because many cuts are simply limiting the growth rate of certain federal programs. For example, the proposed cuts to Medicaid would lower the annual growth rate in spending on the program from 7.3 percent to 7 percent. But Democrats complained the cuts hit the wrong targets, including students struggling to pay for college. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill would increase costs to students and families by $8 billion, including nearly $5.5 billion in costs when students consolidate loans. You're hurting the students of this nation, Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, told Republicans in an angry floor speech. You're putting their families in debt. You're piling on the interest rates. You ought to be ashamed of it. E-mail Zachary Coile at zcoile@sfchronicle.com. And so helping them means just giving them a check and food stamps? SM What about providing them the tools to deal with and live a productive life with their handicap or mental illness? The problem with the liberals and their idea of helping humanity is that throwing money at the problem doesn't make it go away. Do you know how many homeless people out there suffer with mental illness? Do you know how many people with mentally ill family members weren't able to get their loved one the help they needed? I'm talking tangible help, not just a monthly stipend that doesn't even cover the meds they require! Do you realize that your husband, mother, father, sister brother, who ever can slice their wrists and take a handful of pills in an attempt to commit suicide, admit to their family they don't want to live, but when they show up to the ER and say "I didn't really want to kill myself" they just let them walk away with stitches in their wrists and after they've pumped their stomachs? Did you know that even if they holler in the ER to the doctor, nurse, and social worker that they don't want to live and the most a family member can do to help their loved is an affadavit for a 96-hour hold in most states? After 96 hours, they are deemed "okay" and released again to go on their merry way. The liberal lawmakers have passed laws that say a mentally ill person has the right to be mentally ill. They have a right to decide not to take their meds and they have a right to be homeless. They are allowed to make decisions on their own which are detrimental to their well being, both physically and mentally! A family member pleading to the court that this person is incompetent and cannot take themselves is virtually ignored. I dare anyone to try to go to a court of law and get POA over a mentally ill loved one and see just how difficult it really is. It's impossible thanks to the liberals. You mean he might use taxpayer money to Oh wait....hmmmmm She said IF taxpayer money was being used not that it most certainly was. She made a good point and instead of taking the time to listen, you jump on her over something she didn't even say. I understand you don't agree with her on anything but is it so hard to listen to valid concerns without having to argue? Now you can jump on me, LOL. The truly poor already get money from the taxpayer. nm Oh, so it's NOT taxpayer money then, so what's the beef? x Can YOU prove it's taxpayer money? What's the president make? $140,000 yr.? But, it's the perks that are part of his salary - rent free, utility free, a BUDGET for the president to live on. You can simplify it to simply "frivolous" partying, but I do not believe that is the case - there is far more to it than that. There are traditions and a decorum that is expected. I think our president more than fits the bill. Petty or not, going on a date with taxpayer money nm Secretary of the Interior WASTES $245,000 of taxpayer's money A Lavish Bathroom at Interior - If Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) is confirmed this month as interior secretary, he'll have a snappy, scarcely used bathroom in his fifth-floor office, thanks to Dirk Kempthorne, the outgoing secretary. Seems Kempthorne spent about $235,000 in taxpayer funds renovating the bathroom a few months ago, which included installing a new shower, a refrigerator and a freezer and buying monogrammed towels, department officials told our colleague Derek Kravitz. The General Services Administration approved and partially funded the project, an Interior Department official said. The GSA paid about half the cost to refurbish aging plumbing, which needed to be replaced within four years. But department officials say much of the money was spent on lavish wood paneling and tile. Among the choice items found in the new bathroom: wainscot wood panels extending from floor to ceiling and cabinet doors revealing a working refrigerator and freezer. "If Gale Norton needed to shower, at least she was conservative enough to go to the gym in the basement of the building," one career employee quipped, referring to Kempthorne's predecessor. An initial investigation by the department's inspector general, Earl B. Devaney, found no wrongdoing on the secretary's part because the GSA had approved the project. A department spokesman, Shane Wolfe, did not return messages seeking comment. Incoming Cabinet officials often waste absurd amounts of money redecorating perfectly posh offices to their tastes. Watchdogs generally decry the waste of money. But if the projects are part of the stimulus package . . . We don't have the money to spend. That's the problem. They have to borrow the money from other countries. If they keep printing money like its going out of style, our money will have no value and you'll be taking a wheelbarrow full of money to buy a loaf of bread...if you can find a loaf of bread. As you say, what part of that don't you understand? Here's how to spend your tax rebate money How to use the rebate: As you may have heard the Bush Administration said each and every one of us would now get a nice rebate. If we spend that money at Wal-Mart, all the money will go to China. If we spend it on gasoline it will all go to the Arabs, if we purchase a computer it will all go to India, if we purchase fruit and vegetables it will all go to Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala, if we purchase a good car it will all go to Japan, if we purchase useless crap it will all go to Taiwan and none of it will help the American economy. We need to keep that money here in America, so the only way to keep that money here at home is to buy prostitutes and beer, since those are the only businesses still in the US. And I gave him money and he can spend anyway he wants. I will be watching with great expectations. It is his money, he can spend it as he chooses. What do you think would happen to our economy if everyone stopped spending money? The purpose of Georgie Porgie's stimulus checks were to get everyone out spending money and helping businesses stay afloat. It takes a lot of nerve telling anyone how to spend their money. That's why it is called "their" money, not yours! but it is his money to spend as he chooses - Yes, the economy is horrible, but that does not mean that the people that have money should not spend their money. I happen to have more money than one of my sisters; however, I don't not spend my money because she cannot afford to spend any. If he was not spending his personal money on what he chooses, he still would not be giving it to other people to buy cars and pay their mortgages! We care because it's Alaska taxpayer money for her kids to travel, even though uninvited nm what a joke palin is... she's had it now Obama says.. "Show me the money". I will spend it nm Hello. So, the gov prints fiat money to spend it's way out of this depression. Let's see if that works for your family. You lose your job, you have no income, but you spend and spend on your credit cards, up to their max, all 25 of them, thousands of dollars in debt that you will never even be able to pay the interest on, and then the holders of your debt say pay up or we're coming after you, taking your home, everything you own, including your first born. What do you do then? Have you spent your way into prosperity or have you spent your way into bankruptcy? I'm sure you are not trillions and trillions of dollars in debt, and you probably don't have any printing presses to counterfit monopoly money, but if spending your way to posperity will not work in your family, what makes you think it will work with the government? It can't without dire consequences.
Yeah, and his "viable plan" is only to spend trillions nm Yeah, lets spend billions, go into more debt while nm Food pantries are running out of food, charity donations are way down. In this situation, people can't help other people if they can't help themselves. Yeah, do you have ANY idea how much money of nm Yeah, lets give our money away and make our nm taxpayer dollars? what makes you think that everyone having an abortion is paying for it themselves? A satisfied taxpayer........ sm Tax Bill PBS is taxpayer funded so it must pay back to taxpayers. But .... did you see if the PBS interviewed, asked opinions of the Real People, who created and defended this nation: Machinists, Mechanics, Builders, Truck Drivers, Soldiers and etc? NO! The PBS is a stage for big media sharks as Wall Street Journal, Washington Times, NY Times and etc If it isn't taxpayer funded then why would Bush cut back funding and why would it hurt PBS so much if they weren't taxpayer funded. Watch who you call ignorant or at least look in the mirror first. Well, either way, it's a taxpayer thing..... it's not for hiring anyone! It's for teaching the already hired employees to be friendlier and more "well-mannered", and to "Hello", "thank you", and "come again". What a joke and what an absolutely stupid waste of taxpayers' dollars!!! If state employees are supposed to be saying these things in the first place and that is a must, then fire them and hire someone who really wants a job! Really, do YOU or I need someone to come in to teach up how to say "come again" and "thank you"? These people are nuts!!! More than one way to skin a taxpayer or attack an amendment. What good is a bullet launcher without bullets? I heard that with their allotment of materials, manufacturers have been directed to make ammunition only for the government because of the war. Hold on a second.....isn't the war supposed to be winding down?? Printing money we dont have? Borrowing money nm Exactly how do you know both are financed by the RNC on the taxpayer dime?... And even if it were, it's not up to you how the RNC spends its money. Ten to one, she pays for her own kids way...about the wardrobe...sounds like you're a bit jealous, is all I can see from here. Yep, let the hard-working taxpayer pay for those nm And it is a CONTINUOUS bonus to the taxpayer's pay, ....sm Trickle-down economics did not work in all those Republican years, so I guess it might be time to think outside the sandbox,guys? Perhaps a new President with new ideas, since the old ones got us in this predicament in the first place? Why aren't the hard-core Pubs more angry that their government and leaders got us here and kept us here, while feeding the rich more tax cuts, and while taking off all the banking regulations and looking the other way???? Crony-ism at its best! NYT ad alone cost $200,000 in taxpayer funds. Not a big deal?nm z How much are we supposed to stand for???...government keeps trying to turn to the taxpayer ...sm to fix all these messes when we are not the ones with the money. Go to the CEOs, etc with the huge bonuses and golden parachutes, and ALL the money, and have them bail the banks out. They are the ones who made this mess. I live in a state that already double taxes me on my vehicles, has one of the highest sales tax rates in the country, and we even have taxes/fees our loved ones have to pay when we DIE~!!@!@ I am so sick of this! Think I'll quit paying all my taxes and when the IRS comes knocking on my door, I'm gonna hold my hand out on my way out the door on that Bahamas cruise NOT paying taxes paid for, and say oh please bail me out, I can't pay this. Yeah I'll get bail alright, but not in a good way! As long as a taxpayer complies with the code as it was written Taxpayers are not responsible for observing "the intent" of the tax law, but for observing its specific terms. It's the obligation of the legislature to make sure that the law is written in such a way that it reflects their intentions. Unfortunately (or in some cases, fortunately), the intentions of the legislature are often so ambiguous, inappropriate or impossible to implement by tax laws that such a hope is doomed from the start. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You've said before that you're leaving, but you and your goons can't sta 
It takes money to make money. nm
Tax and spend... but not in that order "I think at this point there needs to be a focus on an immediate increase in spending and I think this is a time when deficit fear has to take a second seat . . . I believe later on there should be tax increases. Speaking personally, I think there are a lot of very rich people out there whom we can tax at a point down the road and recover some of the money." Neither can I. I'm going to spend it x He never seems to explain how he will spend the nm SHE did not spend it, GOP did. - see message I take great issue with the fact that we have some serious problems in America (unemployment/lost jobs, housing crisis, war, etc) and everyone is focused on where and how much was spent on Palin and families clothes. Hooey is what I say! (sorry don't know how to spelly hooey(who-ee)). Everyone is focused on money. Money, money, money. That's all anyone cares about. Obama is picked and everyone is praising the democratic choice because he is not someone who has been in Washington for centuries like the other. Palin is picked and republicans are critized that she has not been around for centuries. Obama has no experience and that's okay "we need a fresh face with new ideas". Palin is picked who has experience and people chose to ignore that. So everyone wants people who have money in the white house and she is critized for not having enough. Everyone is into the "image". Palin and her family do not live like the high-fallutin (sp?) washington beurocrats do. They don't spent thousands of dollars on clothing. But because "image" is what everyone wants, the GOP buys them clothes. God knows she's made fun of for everything else. She already answered the question. SHE did not buy clothes, etc for her and her family. The GOP did. She has no use for those clothes and they either have been or will be returned. As for people going after her to "verify" this. I think that story is a bunch of crapola! I don't believe it. I have not seen a credible source to verity they haven't returned the items. This is probably like that anonymous coward who is trying to stir up trouble by saying Gov. Palin lost the election for the republicans. Gov. Palin did not lose the election for them. McCain did that all by himself (and GOP for even picking him, and GOP for not picking a different VP candidate). If anything Gov. Palin held it together. Everytime he started diving in the polls she would get out and give speeches and the debate, and his poll numbers would go up. People loved Gov. Palin. Others were just bitter or hateful. She never "stepped over the limits", because the GOP was the ones who determined that her family had to hold the same image so they did what they needed. The GOP knew very well people would not vote for someone who's family is a jeans & t-shirt type of family. Image. That's all that anyone cares about and if the McCain camp had any chance at all the GOP knew they had to present an image to the public. She and her family gave everything back. It will be (or has been) verified. People need to stop focusing on this petty insignificant issue and lets move ahead. We will never make this country great if the democrats keep focusing on Gov. Sarah Palin and what has happened in the past. The democrats are always screaming at us stop looking in the past. I read somewhere that this is why the democratic party will fail. Because they don't look ahead, they keep focusing on Palin and keep preferring to kick her while she is down. Leave the lady and her family alone. They've gone back home and you will not have to see them or hear from them again. LOL. SHE will spend too much in govt? nm Really? Then perhaps you should spend your time reminding the posters who continue to say it ain't so, that Obama isn't really dropping those charges. Talk to them, the rest of us do not live in O land. Totally against. You cannot spend and get If you were in debt, what are you to do, I guess get more in debt. Then you beg your family and friends to bail you out and now you owe them plus your debt and it get worse and worse. Finally, bankrupt and could be out in the streets. Well, isn't that what we are doing with Obama in office? Isn't that what we are doing with this stimulus, but now EVERYONE is involved? By tomorrow, after this new TARP program comes out by our new treasury, we could be about 2 Trillion dollars in debt total, plus the 750 billion from the previous bailout. We need to pay off our debts and not create more! I agree that cutting taxes may not have helped, but I believe some of us who are in this mess have done it to ourselves (me included). Some wanted a fancy car, better house, nicer things and we bought and bought (not all of us) and now our nation is running and functioning by being in debt. Took an 8 hour Crown Ministry class and it was incredible. They have a website and they recommend not to call a credit counselor, but to call one of them and guess what, IT IS FREE and they tell you what to say to your creditors and how to set up a budget plan. I am paying off all my debts no matter how hard I work and getting rid of a car and going by a strict budget. I believe if this stimulus goes through the way it is by spending and spending, well, the ugly head of inflation will appear. I do not want my credit cards to rise to 30-40% interest or have the bank say, cough up the money honey, nor do I want to pay 12.00 for half gallon of milk. You should take your two cents and spend it on Badly needed, I'm afraid. by your logic you think we can spend sm our way out of debt??????? There is no logic at all to that line of thinking. You mean with all the time you spend posting on Your hubs must make a wad, huh? Seeing as how you obviously dont work a lick. 
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