[PanTheMan]

Postpone the new Medicare prescription-drug benefit for a year to save $30.8 billion. Repeal funding for a $223 million "bridge to nowhere" that would serve 50 people in Alaska. Allow President Bush's tax cuts to expire. Sell bonds similar to World War II's Liberty Bonds.


Those are just some of the ideas in Congress for scraping together as much as $200 billion the federal government will need to help the Gulf Coast rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. And Hurricane Rita hasn't even hit.


Bush has vowed that the federal government will cover the "great majority" of the costs for roads, schools and water systems. Congress has approved $62.3 billion so far, but talks have just begun on how to pay for recovery other than expanding a $331 billion deficit. Bush has stated he will not allow his tax cuts to expire.


"It's going to take a sacrifice by the American people, not just the people of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

Plans include major cuts in Medicaid and medical benifits for military families and veterans. Republicans are also calling for an end to funding for public television ($20 Million) and the national endowment for the arts. ($10 million)


He also said it would take "creativity."


Among the ideas being floated: a bond program, similar to ones that helped fund World War II. It is part of a recovery package to be unveiled today by Louisiana senators Mary Landrieu and David Vitter.


Also today, House Republicans hold the first hearing of what they hope to be a joint, bipartisan committee to investigate the Katrina response. But the session will include neither Democrats, who want an independent probe, nor senators, who have yet to vote on creating the panel.


Former Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael Brown will testify Tuesday.


Meanwhile, the country's worst natural disaster has forced Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress to think about the unthinkable: raising taxes.


Treasury Secretary John Snow said this week that Katrina may "push to the back burner" efforts to make the administration's temporary tax cuts permanent. Frist said Congress might have to revisit the Medicare prescription-drug benefit for seniors and the disabled that begins in January.


"The dynamics have changed," said Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss. "A lot of things I was for ... I think you have to pause and say, 'Can we do that now or a little later?' "


Democrats have pushed to let Republican tax cuts expire. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is among those who favor saving $70 billion by repealing the capital gains and dividends tax cuts, which expire in 2008. Democrats also say money could be found by closing corporate tax loopholes and cracking down on waste and fraud.


Although Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg, R-N.H., has said he won't rule out raising taxes, most Republicans reject that approach.


House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said Wednesday, "Everything is on the table."


Well, not quite.


Hastert didn't match House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi's offer to give up $70 million in transportation projects in her California district - but he said the offer was "very gracious."


"Kiss my ear!" Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, barked when he was asked about suggestions by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and others that he forgo building a bridge to connect Ketchikan to tiny Gravina Island. Young owns property on Gravina Island.


The Alaska bridge was on a wish list of cuts released by the House Republican Study Committee, a group of 110 fiscal conservatives. Most were recycled ideas that previously have been proposed and rejected.

"Now is the time to begin to make the tough choices necessary," said the group's chairman, Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana.

Also Wednesday, the House passed a $6 billion temporary tax-relief bill for Katrina victims that would provide housing aid and raise limits on charitable donations.