The budget includes increases for two big-ticket items. Among other things, the budget increases funding for education and health care.

Republicans are proud of what they plan to spend. But, Democrats say they should be spending even more.

These last three days have been the most hectic in the legislative session this year. It's the House budget debate, and both parties must agree on funding for 13 different bills. The major ones, health care and education, were controversial.

"Together, they make up almost 2/3 of our budget, and so how we spend our money in those areas is very important," said Democrat Representative Margaret Donnelly, St. Louis. "We believe as Democrats that the budget does not adequately restore eligibility of those who lost their health care and is not making an adequate investment in public education."

"We're definitely not in a recession, but there's the slowing of the economy and we have both the mandatories with the Medicaid and welfare system we have to meet on an annual basis," said Republican Representative Allen Icet, Wildwood. "We're keeping our committments to K-12, continuing to phase that in, continuing to phase higher education in, there are a lot of demands on that revenue that comes in, it's something that I am concerned about," said Republican Representative Allen Icet, Wildwood.

The House spent the last three days arguing the points of each area. After they settled on the numbers, it's the Senate's turn.

"We know the Senate is going to take it, and they're going to add their wisdom to it, and some of that we'll like and some of that we may not like, but as a whole I'm very excited about how the budget outlook looks as we go forward," said Republican Rod Jetton, Speaker of the House.

Here are some highlights of the House version of the budget:

For elementary and secondary education, the house is recommending $5.35 billion, which is pretty much in line with what governor blunt is asking for.

For higher education, the house wants $1.26 billion, a few million less than the governor's recommendation.

When it comes to mental health, the house is recommending $1.16 billion, close to the governor's request.

And for health, the house is earmarking $855,334,212, slightly less then the govenor's request.

The single largest budget item is social services. The house is recommending $6.9 billion dollars. That's about $400 million less than the amount the governor asked for.

The budget goes into effect July 01, 2008.