Rumor On The Hill Has It...

Democrats just defeated the awful Labor Education HHS Appropriations Bill!

To quote my inside source on the house-side: "This is the first major victory for the Dems on a big piece of legislation in decades (ok maybe one decade!)"

Apparently it just closed half an hour ago and has yet to hit the news.

According to Laurel, the Republicans are all in a meeting right now because they were going to vote on the budget but now it looks like moderate Republicans might be in revolt.

They were still a few votes short- they made changes this morning but they were not that extensive, and so moderate Republicans are still upset.

They are concerned with $12 billion in cuts to Medicaid (reduced to $11 billion this morning).

John M. McHugh, R-N.Y., a fence-sitting moderate, said that he still has problems with the Medicaid copayments, because they will have to be paid by more poor people than in the past, and most of the savings would come not from the charges but from an assumption that people would forgo medical care rather than pay.

The vote on the labor approps was 209-224 - and the only two votes missing were Dems.

One year out (yesterday) to the 2006 Elections and the Democrats are looking stronger than they have a year out from an election than they have in years.

*Thanks to Laurel for the inside info... I already promised her part of the lawyer fees - ha!