Bush budget DOA?
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Bush budget DOA?
TEXT OF STORY
SCOTT JAGOW: President Bush sends his $3 trillion spending plan to Capitol Hill this morning, but the Democrats in Congress could be waiting with sharp talons to shred this budget to pieces. Eric Niiler reports.
ERIC NIILER: The biggest fight may come over the President’s proposed $70 billion cut from Medicaid and Medicare over the next five years. The savings would come by freezing inflation payments to hospitals, nursing homes and other providers.
Health care consultant Robert Laszewski says it’s not likely that the Democrats will agree.
ROBERT LASZEWSKI: For all practical purposes, the Bush budget is dead on arrival. The Democratic Congress is going to be the ones who are really going to determine what’s going to be cut and what’s not.
Laszewski says one reason is the powerful health care and doctor’s lobby.
Some perspective here: Last year, President Bush proposed cutting $20 billion from Medicaid and Medicare when his own party was in charge of Congress, and that cut went nowhere.
In Washington, I’m Eric Niiler for Marketplace.
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