The Bush budget plays games with funding for veteran's health care. The Washington Post reports: WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration's budget assumes cuts to funding for veterans' health care two years from now _ even as badly wounded troops returning from Iraq could overwhelm the system. Bush is using the cuts, critics say, to help fulfill his pledge to balance the budget by 2012. But even administration allies say the numbers are not real and are being used to make the overall budget picture look better.

As of this writing, the House Ways and Means Committee is marking up a $1.3 billion tax package proposal co-sponsored by Committee chair Charles Rangel (D-NY) and ranking member Jim McCrery (R-LA). The package, H.R. 976 (the Small Business Tax Relief Act Of 2007), would accompany the House minimum wage bill when it is conferenced with the Senate bill, which combines a minimum wage hike and an $8.3 billion tax package. H.R. 976 is expected to clear the Committee today and the full House when it comes up for a vote, perhaps as early as this Wednesday.

An interesting editorial in the NYT today outlines a plan that, if implemented, would seem to have a good chance of eliminating the deficit. Three quick complaints:

• The authors are silent on the Bush tax cuts, so I assume they want them extended.
• They are pretty much silent on the estate tax, although the make an oblique reference to only taxing estates bigger than $7 million- a huge cut compared to recent levels.