Broker Regulation

In a prelude to a summer showdown with President Barack Obama, Republicans controlling the House pushed to passage on Friday a bold but politically dangerous budget blueprint to slash social safety net programs like food stamps and Medicaid and fundamentally restructure Medicare health care for the elderly.

President Barack Obama signed a six-month spending bill Friday that cuts more than $38 billion from the budget.

Iowa Medicaid will pay back $70,000 to the federal government after an audit found claims were paid for drugs and services prescribed by doctors who should have been disqualified because of criminal convictions and other professional infractions.

Protesters have disrupted the final moments of the House debate on next year's budget, singing patriotic and other songs before they were removed from the visitors' gallery overlooking the House floor.

The House has passed a Republican budget blueprint proposing to fundamentally overhaul Medicare for future beneficiaries while combating out-of-control budget deficits. It would impose sharp spending cuts on social safety net programs like food stamps and Medicaid.

Workers and managers from Vermont's IBM plant are bringing a fight about health care to the Vermont Statehouse.