In the very wee hours of May 18, the House finally succeeded in passing its version of the 2007 budget resolution, more than a month too late. Majority Leader John Boehner (R-IA) had repeatedly postponed the vote, because he lacked enough support to pass the bill. The passage of the resolution carries little practical purpose, because the House and Senate are unlikely to have the time or inclination to reconcile the very different versions of the bill, and the House has already moved forward quickly with appropriations. The $2.8 trillion budget bill, H.Con.Res. 376, barely passed the House 218-210 after a group of moderates led by Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE) decided to support the measure. The moderates had originally proved to be a thorn in the side of the GOP leadership. They ultimately caved, however, agreeing on the day of the vote to support the resolution even though the deal they were seeking -- an additional $3.1 billion for health and education programs -- came in the form of a promise to shift money within the budget cap rather than real changes in the resolution. To sway Castle and others, the House GOP leaders reassured them that this extra money would not come from cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps, or other programs for the needy, but instead from the Defense Department. Rep. David Obey (D-WI), a Democrat who strongly opposed the budget resolution, voiced his disapproval of the moderate's about-face this way:

"I was wondering whether the Republican moderates were going to stick to their guns when they said that they knew that it was wrong to pass a budget that provided $40 billion in tax cuts for people who make a million dollars a year while you're squeezing the guts out of education and health programs. We now know the answer.... The fact is, they are now selling out for a promise that if some time in the deep dark distant future somebody does something to change this budget resolution, then there might be a table scrap or two left for additional education and healthcare."

No Democrats crossed the aisle to support the budget resolution, although three, Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), John Larson (D-CT), and Bart Stupak (D-MI), did not vote. Twelve Republicans rejected the budget. These were Peter Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Jim Gerlach (R-PA), Virgil Goode (R-VA), John Hostettler (R-IN), Tim Johnson (R-IL), Walter Jones (R-NC), John McHugh (R-NY), C.L. Butch Otter (R-ID), Jim Ramstad (R-MN), Rick Renzi (R-AZ), John Sweeney (R-NY), and Heather Wilson (R-NM). Debt Limit Affected in Budget Resolution In addition to misplaced spending priorities, the authors of the budget resolution slipped in easy-to-overlook yet very important language raising the U.S. debt limit, which Congress raised by $653 billion on March 16. If this language were to pass in the final version of the resolution, it would automatically increase the debt limit to almost $10 trillion next year, and would push it still further--to $11.3 trillion--by FY 2011. With the national debt at $5.8 trillion when the president took office, his policies - and those of Congress - would result in practically a doubling of the national debt in just 10 years - a truly atrocious record unmatched in the history of the United States. These automatic increases to the debt limit in the resolution would spare Congress the embarrassing task of actually voting on an increase next year, as well as the well-deserved scrutiny that would accompany the fifth debt ceiling increase in the six years of the Bush presidency. Perhaps most shocking about the president's abysmal record on the national debt has been how much of it has been financed by foreigners. According to Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Kent Conrad (D-ND), the country has added more debt owed to foreign investors in five years under Bush than during the 224 years of the first 42 presidents combined. The language to increase the debt limit can be found tucked discretely into page 5 of the bill.