I realize that Democrats haven’t necessarily done a lot to help themselves on this front, but if you have a press which frames things like this, it’s hard to get good press, even if you do something right:
The result would be a…defeat for Democrats, who…had spent months on legislation to add $27 billion to domestic programs, an almost 7 percent increase.
Bush sought a much smaller increase, less than 1 percent, for domestic programs other than military base construction; the Democratic bill provides domestic increases averaging about 4 percent, once “emergency” funding above Bush’s budget is included.
Democrats succeeded in reversing cuts sought by Bush to heating subsidies, local law enforcement, Amtrak and housing as well as Bush’s plan to eliminate the $654 million budget for grants to community action agencies that help the poor.
So, they were able to pass a bill that Bush is willing to sign, that stopped Bush from making cuts into domestic programs that he wanted to make, shifted some money from military spending into those domestic programs, and increased domestic spending by 4 times what Bush wanted.
And this is a “defeat” for Democrats, because they weren’t able to get their 7%. I thought Democrats and Republicans were supposed to compromise. Last time I knew, deciding on 4% when the two parties in the negotiations want 7% and 1% was considered to be a good compromise.
Oh, and Republicans oppose this democratic “defeat” as well.
