The budget blueprint for fiscal year 2005 is being debated this morning on the floor of the Senate. The majority leaders seek to have a resolution approved by the end of the week. Reconciling the Senate's resolution with the House version (currently scheduled to be in committee March 10) may be difficult, as House leaders may be under pressure to increase funding for defense and domestic programs.

Already, many military systems are feeling the financial pinch during a particularly difficult fiscal year. Senate GOP leaders are attempting to add $7 billion worth of funding to the defense spending level to match the amount requested by the administration. The Senate Budget Committee removed $7 billion from defense spending and $2 billion from domestic spending to pare the administration's request from $823 billion to $814 billion, putting it under the cap established last year as part of the fiscal 2004 budget resolution.

With Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) already committed to designate certain spending as "emergency spending", and thus not fall under the budget resolution, deficit hawks on both sides of the aisle are already conceding the FY05 resolution may not hold spending down in any meaningful sense.