"Cuts in Energy Spending May Prove Elusive"
Tags: federal aidWaPo:
Soaring energy prices and a renewed attention to issues of poverty after Hurricane Katrina are hampering Republicans' plans to cut dozens of federal programs that Congress had targeted for elimination before the hurricane struck.
By mid-summer, the House Appropriations Committee had identified 98 federal programs to terminate, at a savings of $4.3 billion. President Bush, pressured by his conservative base, had vowed to pursue such terminations in his 2006 budget proposal. And the rush of spending that followed Katrina has triggered an emphatic drive by small-government conservatives to begin reining in federal spending — at least enough to cover the cost of hurricane relief…
Various possibilities and downsides are discussed; "the devil's in the details."
