Hearing about something once in a weekend may not mean much, but having it come up a second time means...blog it!
Rumors out of Washington have it that Congressional staff have been told in recent meetings that word has come down that in order to cut the federal deficit it is very likely committees are going to have to find ways to cut money from their respective mandatory budgets (reconciliation). Also refered to as "entitlements" this is money which is "fixed", in other words, budget items which must be funded. This is the bottom layer of the budget, always present. Appropriations are additional monies voted into the budget by congress and signed by the president each year.
What this means, if true, is the potential for a real political brouhaha.
In today's Belleville News-Democrat, Capital Fax writer Rich Miller has a column on the woes of Illinois Senate President Emil Jones. Jones spent a number of years working to see that education was an entitlement program. This particular entitlement was due to expire in 2003 and Jones once again worked hard to see that the senate passed the extension. A democrat, Jones found himself getting shafted not only by speaker of the house, Michael Madigan, another democrat, but by the governor himself, also a democrat. Madigan hid Jones bill in the house rules committee and the governor, someone Jones trusted, vowed to veto any proposed raise in property taxes for education.
So we see, on a local level, the political mess ahead if the United States Congress has to cut its mandatory budgets. (entitlements) Twice in one weekend this term has come up. It means we, you and I, better get educated on this because it looks as though the storm clouds are building.
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