National Desk
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

WASHINGTON
CLINTON CHEWS OUT SENATE OVER BUDGET
Drawing a comparison between Republicans in Congress and the innkeepers who turned away Mary and Joseph on the first Christmas, Senator Clinton harangued the opposition party on the floor of the U.S. Senate for nearly a half-hour yesterday for budget bills that she said will benefit corporations and wealthy citizens at the expense of college students, children, and the poor.
“Mary and Joseph found themselves with no place to stay, and Jesus was born in a manger, and many people say, ‘look, they were really shut out, left behind,'” Mrs. Clinton, a Democrat of New York and her party’s leading presidential contender for 2008, said. “Well, we’re shutting out and leaving behind a lot of our children with these budget decisions. It’s wrong. It’s wrong to reward special interests that can do perfectly fine for themselves.”
By way of contrast, the former first lady recalled the decade when her husband, President Clinton, sat in the White House. “We know how to do the economy right,” she said. “We did it in the 1990s.We not only balanced a budget and created a surplus but helped create 22 million jobs and lifted millions and millions of people out of poverty … we took on the challenges of the day and we tried to prepare for the challenges of the future.”
– Special to the Sun
HOUSE ENDORSES McCAIN’S BAN ON TERROR SUSPECT MISTREATMENT
In a symbolic move, the House endorsed a Senate-passed ban on cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of foreign terrorism suspects yesterday as negotiations between the White House and Senator McCain over the provision appeared at an impasse.
Approved 308-122, the procedural vote puts political pressure on House negotiators – but does not require them – to include the ban and another provision standardizing interrogation techniques used by American troops in a final wartime military spending bill.
Both provisions are sponsored by Mr. McCain. With both chambers of Congress controlled by Republicans, the House endorsement of the provisions further embarrasses the Bush administration, which months ago threatened to veto legislation containing either one.
– Associated Press
BUSH GIVES RICE CONTROL OF RECONSTRUCTING FOREIGN COUNTRIES
President Bush yesterday designated Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to take charge of overseeing American assistance to countries recovering from war or civil strife.
The move was the latest by an administration that in the wake of the postwar chaos in Iraq has been increasing its emphasis on trying to create stability in countries that have had major conflicts.
– Associated Press