41.   Democrats, confident of victory, used the debate to criticize the proposed GOP spending cuts as detrimental to the poor and elderly.

42.   Drug companies are not affected by the proposed Medicare cuts, but they are lobbying hard for the chance to raise prices for Medicaid programs for low-income people.

43.   Earlier this week, Brown and Johnson both appeared at a hearing to ask the City Council to reinstate the proposed cuts.

44.   Economists said the proposed cut could mean significantly lower gas prices in New Hampshire, where tax taxes are already lower than in neighboring states.

45.   Even so, the investor-owned hospitals worry about proposed Congressional spending cuts.

46.   Farm-state lawmakers objected that proposed cuts in the bill were too steep.

47.   For New York, where both Gov. George Pataki and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani have proposed severe cuts in child welfare, the results could be particularly damaging.

48.   Gingrich said that the president was unfairly characterizing a proposed cut in the rate of growth of spending as a cut in spending.

49.   Giuliani has railed against Republican efforts to restrict immigration, but has remained unusually muted on proposed federal cuts in Medicaid and welfare.