Speaker Pelosi is acceding to Bush's budget numbers, cutting $22 billion from the congressional budget proposal. We're asking that they spare human needs programs, but there's not much else to cut. They should be done crafting a bare-bones budget in the next day or so. This is probably the worst of all possible worlds, probably worse than what's come of the SCHIP fight, considering this budget will mean service cuts, whereas SCHIP just won't be expanded. And there's something disturbing about the behavior of the appropriations committees, who are protecting their earmarks by making cuts in programmatic budget proposals. Why do they care more about (most likely) b.s. local pandering projects than the public interest? And for more depressing news, President Bush is expected to veto the SCHIP bill today. (Update: This is non-news news, because everyone expected a veto, and the House doesn't have the votes to override the veto anyway.)