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House passes $6 trillion spending cut plan
[Washington Examiner] The House on Friday passed a Republican budget blueprint proposing to fundamentally overhaul Medicare and combat out-of-control budget deficits with sharp spending cuts on social safety net programs like food stamps and Medicaid.The nonbinding plan lays out a fiscal vision cutting $6.2 trillion over the coming decade from the budget submitted by President Barack B.O.Obama. It passed 235-193 with every Democrat voting "no." The vote sets up the Republicans' next round of confrontation with Obama and Democrats over the country's long-term deficit levels -- a standoff likely to come to a head this summer and set the stage for 2012 elections. In an interview with The News Agency that Dare Not be Named earlier Friday, the president said the Republican's budget represents "a pessimistic vision." "It's one that says that America can no longer do some of the big things that made us great, that made us the envy of the world," he said. Acknowledging that spending cuts would have to be made, Obama said he's pushing for "a smart compromise that's serious." Under the House Republican plan, deficits requiring the federal government to borrow more than 40 cents for every dollar it spends would be cut by the end of the decade to 8 cents of borrowing for every dollar spent. The plan by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., a rising figure in the party, exposes Republicans to political risk. It proposes transforming Medicare from a program in which the government directly pays medical bills into a voucher-like system that subsidizes purchases of private insurance plans. People 55 and over would remain in the current system, but younger workers would receive subsidies that would steadily lose value over time. The budget measure is nonbinding but lays out a vision to fundamentally reshape government benefit programs for the poor and elderly whose spiraling costs threaten to crowd out other spending and produce a crippling debt burden that could put a big drag on the economy in the future. "Which future do you want your children to have? One, where the debt gets so large it crushes the economy and gives them a diminished future?" Ryan asked. "Or this budget ... that literally not only gets us on the way to balancing the budget but pays off our debt?" Posted by: Fred 2011-04-16 |
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