Senator Hilary Clinton (D-NY) and Senator John McCain (R-AZ) came out on top in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday night. After a difficult time in Iowa the two Senators bounced back and won the important Northeast primary.

All the candidates continue their fight for the coveted nomination of their respected parties. With the very short primary season in full gear it is still anyone’s ball game.

The race is close and is expected to remain that way for foreseeable the future. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) and Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) remain in the lead, but as the saying goes…”nobody knows what tomorrow will bring.”

Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee won over the hearts of the Iowa Caucus on Thursday night.

The Democrat from Illinois and the Republican from Arkansas surprised a lot of people when they came out on top to take the victory in Iowa, and become the leading candidates of their respective parties.

I know everyone may feel this year’s presidential race has been an ongoing soap opera that has lasted too long…well the party has just started.

The candidates now make their way to New Hampshire where John Edwards, Hilary Clinton, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani vow to redeem themselves.

Stay tuned…

The House voted 272-142 for a $555 billion spending package Wednesday, including $70 billion in unfettered funding for Iraq, sending Congress home for the year (The Hill).

The House of Representatives passed its Omnibus spending bill Monday night in two separate votes. The first was a vote of 253-154, to pass the omnibus’ spending measure; and the second was 206-201 to add $31 billion for the troops in Afghanistan.

Democrats caved to pressure from the White House and cut their original spending bill.

The bill includes cuts to appropriations for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI). When the cut is applied, however, it is more or less flat funding. The Senate is expected to add additional war funds to this bill when it reaches the Senate floor. If they are required to come up with spending cuts to pay for the additional funds, the across the board percentage will be higher, and there will likely be a cut to NIH/NCI.

Even though it looks like the Administration prevailed in this fight, Republicans were still critical of the bill claiming multiple earmarks were attached at the last minute.

I urge everyone to contact their elected official and express their disappointment.

Democratic leaders in the House and Senate indicated they would work with Republicans to complete an omnibus spending bill close to President Bush’s budget cap while keeping most earmarks and trying to protect other Democratic spending priorities (Roll Call – 12/13/07).

President Bush has promised to veto any spending bill that would exceed the $933 billion limit set by the Administration. He proved this last month by vetoing the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations bill, which included a 3.1 percent increase for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Speaker Nancy Pelosi said it is “immoral that researchers are missing many opportunities to advance health science because of insufficient federal funding”, noting that “1,500 Americans die every day because of cancer.”

Though limits set by the Administration have been accepted, the battle between the House and the Senate rages on. There are some large differences between the two chambers, including very different ideas on the best way to trim down the package.

The silver lining is we may soon be able to continue funding our Government.

Stay tuned…