(At 1am est Wed. night) House Passes a $2.7 Trillion Spending Plan

Holy Shit haven't they cleaned out Fort Knox yet.

WASHINGTON, Thursday May 19 — After more than a month of delay as Republicans feuded among themselves, the House early Thursday narrowly approved a $2.7 trillion spending plan for next year.

The vote, 218 to 210, came at 1 a.m. after Republican moderates dropped threats to withhold support unless they received commitments to add $3 billion for education, health and community-development block grants. In a nod to the moderates, House leaders included a statement "recognizing" that those programs should receive more than President Bush had requested if savings could be found in other areas.

. . .

The House spending resolution, though largely symbolic, would set broad limits on spending for next year and nonbinding goals for the next five years.

The measure calls for increasing military spending by 7 percent, to nearly $558 billion in 2007, a figure that includes $50 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The package would essentially freeze or cut spending on most domestic discretionary programs, including education, energy and national parks, and it calls for trimming $6.8 billion over five years from entitlement programs like Medicaid and farm subsidies.

The plan would raise the debt ceiling by $653 billion, to $9.6 trillion, and it assumes that the shortfall next year will be $348 billion, about what it is likely to be in 2006.

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