Senate Votes to Slash Social Programs

The Senate today approved a bill to cut $36 billion from programs that help the poor, students and the elderly over the next five years. The vote was 52-47. Senators Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Ben Nelson of Florida were the only Democrats who voted in favor the bill. Senator Jon Corzine of New Jersey didn't vote. Republican Senators Norm Coleman of Minnesota, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Mike DeWine of Ohio voted no over an included provision to allow oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Senator Frank Lautenberg, Democrat from New Jersey, said the Republican-named "Deficit Reduction Act of 2005" would be more aptly called the "Moral Disaster of Monumental Proportion Reconciliation Act."