President Bush has recently increased his efforts to sell the American public on his plan to privatize Social Security despite continuing evidence that more and more Americans are rejecting his proposals. Yet even while launching a “60 cities in 60 days” tour, the president and other administration officials have been carefully maneuvering to allow whatever reform is adopted to be seen as a victory for the administration.

The Senate narrowly passed its fiscal year 2006 (FY06) budget resolution late on the night of March 17 by a vote of 51–49. Several amendments from Democrats that would have greatly improved the bill, including one that would have required both spending increases and tax cuts to be paid for, were narrowly rejected. But two amendments dealing with entitlement and discretionary spending, which did pass, could cause irreconcilable differences between House and Senate versions.

The Senate rejected today a controversial amendment to a bankruptcy reform bill that would have given corporate special interests new incentives to refuse to provide information necessary for protecting the public.

House Vote on Jobs Act Would Codify Religious Discrimination, Opponents Await Senate Vote On March 3, the House approved H.R. 27, the Job Training Improvement Act, which would allow publicly funded religious agencies to hire and fire workers based on their religious beliefs. A coalition of organizations had urged the House to reject the bill unless it was amended to ensure that workers could not be discriminated against on religious grounds in federally supported social service programs.