Hillary Clinton (D-NY)

The Senate and House hammered away Thursday at proposed fiscal year 2009 budget resolutions.

The Senate voted for some of President Bush’stax cuts and againstrenewin others. Meanwhile, the House Thursday continued to debate a Democratic proposal.

Democrats in both houses of Congress haveproposed resolutions that would exclude $196 billion in cuts to Medicare andMedicaid spending, as proposed by President Bush. The resolutions also wouldincrease spending on many domestic programs by raising taxes in three years -after Bush’s tax cuts expire. The proposals would produce surpluses in a fewyears, Democrats say. 

The Republicans’ plans would seek to balance the budgetthrough continued tax breaks for married couples, those with children and thosewho inherit multi-million dollar estates. These tax breaks likely would come atthe expense of Medicare, Medicaid, nursing home care, housing and communitydevelopment, which would all receive substantial cuts in funding. 

Presidential hopefuls Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) andBarack Obama (D-IL) and presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (D-AZ)were in Washington, D.C., Thursday to vote on the measures.