WASHINGTON: The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a 3.45-trillion-dollar budget blueprint for the 2010 fiscal year largely in line with President Barack Obama's proposal. The Democratic-drafted budget got approval Thursday by a vote of 233-196, along party lines, after defeating a Republican alternative that slashed spending and taxes. The Senate is working on its own budget for the 2010 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1 this year. It is expected to pass its plan as soon as late Thursday, according to news reports. Any differences between the two versions will have to be worked out. The House budget is slightly less expensive than the 3.55-trillion-dollar budget that Obama submitted to Congress in February. The budget includes a deficit of 1.2 trillion dollars for the 2010 fiscal year. Obama's budget, his first one, seeks to shore up the nation's economy that has been in a recession since December 2007 while overhauling health care, energy and education. The president has described his budget as "an economic blueprint for our future -- a foundation on which to build a recovery that lasts." "Our budget lays the groundwork for a sustained, shared, and job-creating recovery," House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer was quoted as saying. Republicans, however, contend the budget spend too much and will leave the nation with deficits that are too large. The budget legislation is non-binding but sets guidelines for spending and tax measures that will be considered later this year, according to the news reports.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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