Senate Panel Rejects Bush Spending Limits

[leftchick]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5158069,00.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - In the latest evidence that Congress is chafing at President Bush's limits on spending, a Senate panel Thursday rejected cuts to Amtrak and voted to significantly increase spending for highways, airport construction and community development grants.

The Appropriations Committee also voted to effectively raise by $2 billion Bush's $843 billion limit for spending passed each year at Congress' discretion. That was done in order to take care of recently discovered shortfalls in the budget for veterans' health care.

The panel approved three spending bills by unanimous 28-0 votes. Takeation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Affairs, as well as the federal contribution to the District of Columbia.

The increases to Amtrak's subsidies would permit the troubled railroad to keep open routes that required huge subsidies, such as the Sunset Limited, the Florida-to-California route that loses more than $400 per passenger.

[Talismom]

1. This is a very hopeful sign! It appears that they are

begining to realize that he has been draining all money from the domestic economy to beef up the military/industrial sector and enrich his friends. It's past time for the legislature to start representing the best interests of the voters.

[bvar22]

2. Why should those who travel by "private" jet.....

..be concerned about public transportation?

[gratuitous]

3. Uh oh, are the crowds beginning to wander off?

Has the snake oil salesman lost their attention? Very bad news for Bush that he's being bucked not just by an ineffectual Democratic minority, but by increasingly larger segments of his own party.