House Passes Obama Budget

George Wenschhof Bio

As expected, the House easily passed the Obama 3.5 trillion budget today. Politico.com has more here. The House-Senate reconciliation was approved in the House by a 233-193 vote with all voting Republicans voting "No". They naysayers were joined by 17 Democrats, including newly elected Maryland 1st district Representative Frank Kratovil. The Democrats who voted "No" appear to be from districts which may be vulnerable for reelection. Kratovil won in Maryland what had been a long held Republican seat after moderate Republican Wayne Gilchrist was beat in the primary by ultra conservative Maryland state senator Andy Harris.

It appears with the defection of Senator Arlen Specter to the Democratic ranks, many thick headed Republicans do not seem to understand the far right wing nuts of their party are not helping them. In more bad news for Republicans, the Pew Research Center is reporting that only 23% of voters identify themselves as Republicans. That is down from the 30% reported six years ago. TheHill.com has more here.

The Senate is also expected to approve the budget prior to when President Obama delivers his televised (except for Fox News) 100 day press conference tonight at 8:00 PM ET. No signature by the president is needed.

A concern raised by many is the degree of deficit spending included in the budget. The current year deficit could reach 1.7 trillion. However, this was due to the Troubled Assets Relief Bill (TARP), the Stimulus bill and a supplemental funding bill to the budget this year. The national debt is currently 11.2 trillion. The five year budget plan presented by the president reduces the deficit spending to 500 million by 2014.

6:29 PM ET Update: Congress has now passed the 3.5 trillion budget as the senate voted to approve 53-43 with a vote mostly along partisan lines. This comes less than two hours prior to when the president is scheduled to hold his press conference on his first 100 days in office. Politico.com has more here.

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