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House trims budget a bit

Bills to reduce spending by $40-billion and allow Arctic oil drilling are sent to the Senate.

WASHINGTON - The House voted to cut a thin slice off federal deficits and sink oil drills into the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge early Monday, quelling Democratic opposition in a marathon struggle ending near dawn.

The votes sent both bills to the Senate, where the GOP leadership vowed to clear them for President Bush's signature with a year-end flourish.

Bush sounded eager. "We must restrain government spending. And I'm pleased that the House today has voted to rein in entitlement spending by $40-billion, and I urge the United States Senate to join them," he said at a White House news conference.

Democrats were scathing. "As the Bible teaches us, to minister to the needs of God's creation is an act of worship, to ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us," said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California. "Let us vote no on this budget as an act of worship and for America's children."

Both year-end bills were crafted to satisfy GOP conservatives who hold sway in the House and Senate. Yet both also were tempered to hold the support of party moderates whose votes are necessary for passage over opposition of Democrats, some of whom have threatened to filibuster the ANWR measure.

The Alaska oil provision was grafted onto a $453-billion spending bill for the Pentagon, a measure that also reflected conservative priorities with a 1 percent spending cut across hundreds of federal programs. Yet the same legislation included an additional $29-billion for victims of Hurricane Katrina, as well as an extra installment of low-income heating assistance for the poor.

Overall, the deficit reduction bill claimed savings of $39.7-billion over five years, 2.5 percent of the $1.6-trillion in total red ink that congressional officials estimate will pile up for the same period.

The savings included $4.8-billion from Medicaid, and one key provision is designed to make it harder for beneficiaries to transfer assets to their children in order to qualify for government-paid nursing home care.

As a result of the late maneuvering, it was after midnight when GOP leaders summoned the House into session.

The Pentagon bill passed, on a lopsided vote of 308-106. Democrats were split as they were confronted with a choice of opposing money for the troops in Iraq or voting for ANWR drilling. Democrats Alcee Hastings of Miramar and Robert Wexler of Boca Raton were the only Florida representatives to vote against the bill.

The deficit reduction bill passed a few hours later on a far closer tally of 212-206. No Democrats supported the bill and only nine Republicans, none from Florida, opposed it.

[Last modified December 20, 2005, 01:51:07]