Congress is making some headway, but there are so many disputes between the administration and Congress over spending levels and policy that we probably will see a repeat of recent years, when negotiations went down the the wire. Part of the problem is that House and Senate GOP leaders disagree among themselves. Those will be relatively easy to clear before October. The Democrats and Vice President Gore are in relative harmony on taxes and spending. That's a legitimate point.
Spending rises every year.
The dispute usually is over whether the rate of spending is rising fast enough to keep up with inflation and to sustain the current program levels. The environment used to be strickly a Democratic issue. Now, more and more Republicans seem to be crossing over when a bill comes across to put more land under government control. Republicans traditionally have been divided over environmental issues, with moderates from the Northeast, Midwest and California more in favor of government land control than conservatives from the West and Southwest. During a tough campaign season, conservatives tend to be a little more careful about picking fights with environmentalists.