Facing deficit, Senate eyes cuts, U.S. oil

The Senate is digging into a budget plan that would bundle mostly modest Medicare and Medicaid spending cuts with a controversial plan to open an Alaskan wilderness area to oil drilling.

Republicans are seeking to burnish their budget-cutting credentials but face unanimous opposition from Democrats who contend it is part of an overall plan that will actually increase the deficit once a companion $70 billion tax cut bill is passed...

...In the Senate, advocates of permitting oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge are cautiously confident they will prevail as they did earlier this year on a 51-49 vote. But inclusion of that provision could bleed GOP votes from the overall bill, and environmental advocates are turning up the heat on wavering lawmakers, especially the seven Republicans who opposed ANWR drilling in the earlier vote. Among the fence-sitters over ANWR drilling is Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I.

"A vote for the budget reconciliation is a vote for drilling in the refuge" and will be scored that way when assessing lawmakers' votes, said Deborah Callahan, president of the League of Conservation Voters, which tracks congressional votes on environmental issues.

There also is restiveness on the right, where conservatives are unhappy because the bill contains more than $30 billion in new spending to go along with the cuts.

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