It's not a lock, but the fact that it exists is enough for our liking.
GOP Pushes $2.4T Budget Through House
Republicans muscled a compromised $2.4 trillion budget for 2005 through the House on Wednesday, but struggled in their quest for enough votes to push it through the closely divided Senate later this week.
The House approved the measure by a near party-line 216-213, with GOP leaders hoping moderate Republican senators angry over the plan's weak tax-cut limits would feel pressured to support it. But there was no sign the moderates would comply, and a Senate defeat loomed as a real possibility.
A failure of the GOP-run Congress to complete a budget would be a significant election-year embarrassment for the party and make it harder for them to cut taxes and raise the government's borrowing limit later this year.
The budget would pave the way for tax cuts far more modest than what Bush proposed. Next year's deficit would be $367 billion - just below last year's $375 billion record, and $4 billion more than what forecasters expect without the budget's proposed policies.
