This afternoon, House Democrats announced they would permit consideration of three substitute budget proposals during debate of the FY 2008 budget resolution. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said today he expected substitute budgets from the Progressive Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), and the House Republicans. While this is far more options than Representatives have had in the past under Republican rule, Some feel a notable omission from that list is the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition. While the Blue Dogs are unlikely to support the Black Caucus budget or the Progressive budget because the spending levels are a bit too hot for their taste, they will not support the Republican budget either, because the tax policies and low spending levels make cold. By opting not to offer their own version, it seems members of the Blue Dogs Coalition felt the main democratic proposal combined the right blend of fiscal responsibility and funding for pressing needs. While reestablishing a commitment to paying for changes to mandatory spending and taxes in the budget, the Democratic Leadership plan still boosts discretionary spending levels for under funded and neglected national priorities and investments, such as Head Start, child care, and housing. The Democrats' budget would allow about $25 billion more in discretionary spending in 2008 than President Bush has requested, and about $7 billion more than the Senate-adopted plan. In addition, like the Senate plan, the House budget would add additional funds (and deficit-neutral offsets) for mandatory nutrition and health care programs. While this is only a first step in repairing some of the damage done to important priorities in the federal budget over the past six years and before, it seems the Democrats have used a recipe that is neither too hot nor too cold, but just about right.

Now that the House Budget Committee has approved its budget resolution for fiscal year 2008 (we noted its differences with its Senate counterpart here), the full House will take it up, with a final vote expected next week. The Center of Budget provides a thorough summary of the House resolution, which points out that the budget plan "is notable for adhering to the Pay-As-You-Go rule the House adopted earlier this year." Ironically, however, the House PAYGO rule does not actually require a deficit netural budget for FY 2008:

The House just passed the FY07 supplemental funding bill that's mostly for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The bill contains conditions and a timetable for withdrawing most troops from Iraq. The House of Representatives today passed a $124 billion emergency spending bill that sets binding benchmarks for progress in Iraq, establishes tough readiness standards for deploying U.S. troops abroad and requires the withdrawal of American combat forces from Iraq by the end of August 2008. The bill promptly drew a veto threat from President Bush.

The amendment by Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), referred to below, was not only first in order but first in significance among the amendments adopted yesterday during the Senate budget resolution floor debate. At a cost of about $195 billion over 2010-12, consuming all of the budget surplus projected in the resolution, the amendment

• extends middle class tax cuts including the 10 percent tax bracket, marriage penalty relief, and the child tax credit, strengthens the adoption tax credit, and provides combat pay under the EITC