The US Senate delivered a rebuff to President George W. Bush and its own Republican leaders by passing a US$2.6 trillion budget erasing his plans for cutting Medicaid, community development and school aid.
Foreshadowing clashes ahead, the House approved its own fiscal outline relying on far deeper reductions in Medicaid and other domestic programs. After its 218 votes to 214 votes passage, top House Republicans chided the other chamber for not clamping down more on spending at a time of massive federal deficits.
"I'm not real pleased with what I'm hearing the Senate say" with its votes on spending, said House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle, a Republican from Iowa.
Before its 51 votes to 49 votes approval of the budget, the Senate, in a surprise move, voted to practically double the budget's tax cuts to US$134 billion over the next five years. That is even more than Bush and the more conservative House have sought.
The Senate marched through dozens of amendments on Thursday aimed at boosting spending, rejecting many but agreeing to add funds for everything from anti-AIDS efforts to water projects.
Senators voted to restore money Bush proposed cutting from education and local police, fire and emergency workers. They also voted to kill Bush's plan to combine community-development block grants with dozens of other programs and cutting them by about US$2 billion.
Overall, the tax cuts and spending increases the Senate approved during Thursday's votes would cost more than US$80 billion over the next five years.
It was unclear whether the Senate's larger tax cut, or the other changes, will survive in the eventual House-Senate compromise budget. The tax cut was approved by 55 votes to 45.
The budget sets overall tax and spending targets to guide Congress as it writes bills later in the year that make actual changes in programs and tax laws. That means some policies the budget suggests may never be enacted, though the votes are often precursors for what lawmakers will eventually do.
In the Senate's watershed 52 to 48 roll call, a coalition of Democrats and moderate Republicans voted to yank all US$14 billion in proposed five-year cuts from Medicaid, the federal-state health care program for the poor and disabled.
Those reductions, 1 percent of expected Medicaid spending over the period, are the keystone of plans by Bush and Republican congressional leaders to start controlling federal deficits that surged to a record US$412 billion last year and show little sign of abating.
Bush proposed US$8.5 billion in five-year Medicaid savings, while the House would rely on up to US$20 billion in reductions from the program.
Overall, Bush has proposed US$51 billion in five-year savings from benefit programs, including farm, veterans and student loans.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of