Congress passed a five-year, $14 trillion budget last night that will pave the way for oil drilling in parts of an Alaskan wildlife refuge, a new round of tax cuts and the first curbs on entitlements for the poor in nearly a decade, the Washington Post reports under the headline:

Budget Deal Sets Stage for Arctic Drilling And Tax Cuts

Under the deal, Congress would be expected to shave $35 billion off the growth of so-called “entitlement” programs through 2010.

While President Bush has been spending political capital to try privatizing Social Security, Congress has been quietly trying to figure out how to reduce the deficit by cutting a federal program that really needs help: Medicaid. Nearly a third of the total cuts in the name of deficit reduction would come from Medicaid, the primary federal and state health program for the poor.

At the same time, the budget makes room for $106 billion more in tax cuts for the well-to-do over five years, $70 billion of which would be protected from a Senate filibuster, according to the agreement.

“Sad to say, the country would be better off with no budget plan than with this one,” said Robert Greenstein, executive director of the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “Without it, deficits would be lower, and cuts in programs for the needy wouldn’t be imposed to pay for more tax cuts for the wealthiest.”

It just goes to show you that this administration is totally crass in rewarding its friends and sticking it to the least amongst us. Where are the true Christians protesting this budget?

The document also includes instructions to the Senate Energy Committee to find $2.4 billion in revenue, giving the green light for a bill to open Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. With those instructions, the oil industry will need only 51 Senate votes to win its decades-long fight to explore the refuge, a hurdle that seems surmountable, the Post reports. Last month, a Senate majority beat back efforts to strike the oil-drilling language from the budget on a 51 to 49 vote.

What is strange here is that the big oil companies have already come out publicly saying they are not interested in exploring ANWR since it would be hard to recover enough oil to cover the cost of drilling there.

So the mystery is, why is the Bush administration really pushing for this? It doesn’t make sense and the big media is not getting to the bottom of this mystery.

The only thing I can figure is that Bush made a promise to push for it and getting it is just another notch in his political belt - another win that has nothing to do with actually governing.

And it is interesting that the president chose last night to hold a prime time news conference and spent most the time focusing on his proposed changes to Social Security.

Which story got the most play in your local newspaper? On the local TV news?

GW