WASHINGTON — President Bush’s 2008 budget, to be released today, will likely contain a mixed bag for New Yorkers, as lawmakers hail long-sought funding for ground zero responders and an airport rail link while they gird for battle against proposed cuts to city hospitals.

Of chief concern to the city’s congressional delegation is Mr. Bush’s plan to expand health insurance and save money on Medicare and Medicaid. Senators Clinton and Schumer have already scheduled a news conference this morning at Bellevue Hospital to protest a planned $70 billion cut in Medicare and Medicaid funding. City officials have said Mr. Bush’s plan to offer tax breaks to individuals buying private insurance would cost city hospitals $350 million.

“I understand that they’re trying to balance the budget,” a Democratic congressman representing Queens and the Bronx, Rep. Joseph Crowley, said in an interview yesterday. “What he’s trying to do is put it on the backs of those who can least afford it.”

The plan is expected to face opposition in the House Ways and Means Committee, which is headed by the dean of the city’s congressional delegation, Rep. Charles Rangel, a Democrat of Harlem. Mr. Crowley also sits on the panel. “If it’s not dead on arrival, it’s going to have a tough time passing our committee,” Mr. Crowley said.

Mr. Crowley said he is “not optimistic” about the budget, given the administration’s repeated warnings to lawmakers that “there’s going to be a lot of pain” in the document. Mr. Bush repeated that sentiment to House Democrats at their retreat in Virginia over the weekend, Mr. Crowley said.

The congressman said the White House has already been told him not to expect the inclusion of millions of dollars in funding he requested for medical “Centers of Excellence” in the Bronx.

The White House is drawing more praise for assurances that it will allow $2 billion in unused tax benefits to go to a direct rail link to John F. Kennedy International Airport from Lower Manhattan. Local congressional leaders, along with Mayor Bloomberg, have been lobbying for federal aid for the rail link for years.

The president has also signaled he will allocate $25 million in health benefits for responders to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The move has met with cautious praise from local leaders, some of whom have lauded the initial funding but say much more will be needed.

The allotment follows a concerted push from the delegation, led by Mrs. Clinton, to boost funding for treatment of ground zero workers who have suffered respiratory illnesses that studies indicate may be linked to the toxic dust that permeated the site. Officials have said the current funding will run out by this summer.

Bolstering the cause was the story of Ceaser Borja Jr., whose father, a former ground zero worker, died of a respiratory illness the night before last month’s State of the Union address, which Mr. Borja attended as Mrs. Clinton’s guest. Mr. Bush met with the younger Mr. Borja on January 31 and announced the $25 million in funding the same day.

Mrs. Clinton said last week that the funding was “an important first step,” but it was “not enough to meet our growing need.” The congressman whose district includes the World Trade Center site, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, went further in his criticism last week, saying he was disappointed in the amount allocated and pledging to work with fellow Democrats to put more in the budget.

The $2 billion for the JFK rail link comes in the form of tax credits to the city and state promised after the 2001 attacks. Officials have long pushed the project as one that will improve access to the city’s financial center and ease the commute from Long Island and Queens. Mr. Bush has included the funding before, but Republican committee chairmen have blocked it in years past, most recently in December. With the Democrats in control of Congress — and Mr. Rangel in charge of the powerful Ways and Means Committee — those obstacles should be gone.