In essence, this would provide local governments a path toward $10,000s a year in savings on every heated pool's operating costs, money that could be used to keep teachers and policemen on payroll or pay for other threatened local government expenditures (and/or reducing the burden on taxpayers).
But Democrats hope to make a case that the Bush administration has put the government on a path leading to deficits for years, perhaps decades, eventually limiting its ability to pay Social Security and Medicare benefits to the growing ranks of retirees and hurting the economy by driving up interest rates.
The federal government cleared a path for the lawsuit earlier this year after adding the 7,000lb orca to the endangered species list.
President Bush proposed a $2.4 trillion budget that would substantially increase funding next year for national security but would cut or strictly limit spending on most domestic programs and, on paper at least, put the government on a path of declining deficits.
WASHINGTON — After a 24-hour delay and concessions to conservatives, the House on Friday narrowly approved a Republican fiscal plan that the Senate quickly rejected in a standoff over the federal debt ceiling that was keeping the government on a path to potential default.
Mr. Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who is back as chairman of the House Budget Committee after his unsuccessful turn as Mitt Romney's running mate, gave no clues as to how he can produce a fiscal plan in coming weeks that puts the government on a path to a balanced budget in 10 years as House Republicans, in a big shift, now promise.
The president and his budget director, Peter R. Orszag, have signaled in recent weeks that the budget, after this year, will show the government on a path to lower deficits because of a combination of renewed economic growth and Mr. Obama's proposals for increasing tax revenues and cutting spending.
Democrats criticized the changes, saying Republicans were returning to the policies that had put the government on a path to deep deficits in the first place and would open the door to "Enron-style accounting" that covered up the costs of tax cuts and their other legislative efforts.
Democrats said the Republicans were leading the government down a path to at least a decade of significant deficits at a time when the nation should be preparing for the huge costs of paying retirement and health care benefits for the baby-boom generation.
