House passes GOP budget with no Dem support

House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., holds up a copy of his budget plan entitled "The Path to Prosperity," Tuesday, March 20, 2012, during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington.

/ AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

Updated at 4:05 p.m. ET

The Republican-led House of Representatives on Thursday passed a conservative, $3.5 trillion budget bill that has no chance of becoming law but that draws a clear line in the sand between Republican and Democratic goals.

By a partisan vote of 228 to 191, the House passed Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's budget proposal, which calls for steep spending limits and dramatic changes to Medicare. Ten Republicans voted against the bill, and no Democrats voted for it.

"People in this country are looking, they are desperate to see a strong signal from Washington that we are prepared to make the tough decisions necessary to address our fiscal crisis," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said on the House floor.

The Republican budget calls for $1.028 trillion in discretionary spending in 2013 -- below the $1.047 trillion spending cap Democrats and Republicans agreed to in a debt deal last August. It would also reshape Medicare starting in 2023, giving seniors subsidies to purchase either private insurance or traditional, government-run insurance on an exchange. Ryan's proposed budget takes a number of other dramatic steps, such as creating just two income tax brackets at 10 and 25 percent.

At an event in Washington Thursday morning, Ryan said his budget reflects the concern that the credit markets could "turn on us," interest rates could spike and the United States' fiscal problems could spin out of control sooner rather than later.

Paul Ryan on Defense budget: Generals aren't giving us their "true advice"
GOP House budget sets up next spending, Medicare fights

"I personally am banking on two years before this thing gets ugly," he said. "I want to show at least one half of our political system is getting serious about this [and] not punting to some commission some backroom deal negotiation."

The budget has no chance of passage in the Democratic-led Senate, and President Obama would almost certainly reject it. Democrats have slammed the bill as contrary to American values, charging that Ryan's Medicare plan would drive seniors "to the poorhouse."

At the same event with Ryan on Thursday, Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, slammed the Ryan budget for its focus on cutting spending. As an example, he pointed to the significant cuts to transportation in Ryan's plan.

Dems: Ryan budget plan would drive seniors "to the poorhouse"
GOP budget sets up competing visions for 2012 candidates

"We have 17 percent unemployment in the construction industry," Van Hollen said. "It seems to me a no brainer that we would make those important investments... [Democrats] believe we need to focus on jobs and getting the economy moving as we put in place a long term deficit plan."

Ryan said his budget focused on cutting spending rather than raising revenue because "spending's the problem." If government spending continues to grow, he said, "You'll end up shutting down the American dream, the American economy."

Before passing the Ryan plan, the House voted down a more conservative budget, as well as a Democratic budget. The Democratic plan would have called for more modest savings than the Ryan plan while bringing in more taxes from oil and gas companies and American families earning more than $250,000. It would have added transportation and education spending.

On Wednesday evening, the House voted 414 to zero to reject President Obama's 2013 budget, with Democrats accusing Republican leadership of holding the vote to politically embarrass the president and his party.

Van Hollen said today that Congress should be able to actually reach agreement on discretionary parts of the budget this year, but that debates over larger issues -- like tax reform -- amount to purely political debates in this election year.

"Those are issues that are going to be dealt with in the campaign," he said, adding that he's hoping Congress can reach a compromise after the November election.

[Herne42]

nice to see the GOP hard at work... getting NOTHING done....The GOP should be banned from U.S. politics.

[TimeToEvolve]

You have to be a really depraved individual to listen to this Ryan conservative wacko.

You know, it's this kind of ridiculous proposal that support my idea that conservatives are a mutant form of the human species. We should recognize this as a mental illness or a sickness and try to help them. But we certainly can't let these sick people run anything for us or have any power anymore. The are literally sick and crazy. Literally.

[old_bard]

The rich and corporations have more money now than they have ever had!!!!! RAISING THE TAXES ON THE WEALTHY ONLY HALF THE WAY BACK TO WHERE THEY WERE IN 1960 WOULD PAY THE DEBT OFF IN 10 YEARS, WITHOUT CUTTING SPENDING AT ALL. RAISE THE TAXES NOW, AND LETS GET ON WITH REBUILDING AMERICA INSTEAD OF BICKERING OVER A FEW PEOPLE GETTING A FEW BENEFITS THAT THEY NEVER WORKED FOR!!!! REPUBLICANS ARE SO GD GREEDY IT'S SICKENING. AND THEY RELY ON THE NEAR TOTAL STUPIDITY OF THE ELECTORATE, WHO VOTE TO THEIR OWN DISADVANTAGE.

[stormerF69]

Sounds like you forgot how the Obamacare bill and stimulis was passed? A few Americans getting a few Benefits,you from the Obama school of fuzzy math 43 million food stamp recipients,55 million Social security recipients, Yea A few Americans getting a few benefits?

[RobAla]

"The Democratic plan would have called for more modest savings than the Ryan plan while bringing in more taxes from oil and gas companies and American families earning more than $250,000."

That's brilliant - let's just drive up the price of oil and gas more..... The Democrat plan is nuts! Increasing the price of gas through increased taxes will result in increasing the price of everything transported by fossil fuel. This would absolutely nail the poor and middle income Americans, and hit those on fixed incomes (the elderly) the hardest. This is one of the dumbest ideas I have heard. Don't these people have any sense?

[nearl451]

Maybe Rob we should give $1T to big oil. That way oil prices would be really low.

Your reasoning is, as usual, just plain hypocritical. Goahead and calculate how much those breaks would mean on a gallon of gas. That's right: miniscule! There is no need to subsidize an industry that is standing on its own two feet just fine. It is not Constitutional nor ethical to pay welfare to the successful, nor can we afford it. LET THE GD FREE MARKET WORK! Not the specualtion or hedge markets, but the laws of supply and demand.

[slatep]

Apparently not.!!

[franknkissy]

As a senior who possesses no assets - i shall comment sparingly , only recommending that the wealthy should bear a greater share of the tax burden ! And that our military should be forced to shape up - to do much much more with much much less of the american citizens toughly earned dollars . especially those generals more interested in teaching troops 'how to suck a banana' rather than themselves serving on the front battle lines in order to Win A War for a change !

[stormerF69]

Maybe if you had made better choices you would have more assets,now you want some from those who have been prosperous, and worked harder than you,so you can be on esay street?

[TimeToEvolve]

I honestly am starting to believe the idea that the Republicons are a mutant form of the human race that have broken off from the main species.

They are mean, arrogant bullies with no compassion. They do not believe in science or in facts that are plain to the rest of us. They seem to have little in the way of any ideas to help the majority of the people and no matter what they seem to think that whatever they want to think is the truth. Even when it is clearly not.

I think they are a separate subspecies and we should further study this phenomenon. How else would you explain the robotic crazy and un-compassionate Republicon Congress, the crazy Supreme Court that rules against the will of Congress and the American people and the pure evil of the Bush Cheney Crime Family. Any other believers?

[stormerF69]

You @ time to evolve,.. really need to get off the stale koolaid.

[kevboom]

Yeah, good luck to any seniors living in poverty or the middle class who expect to afford health care on a government "subsidy" in 2023. Do you know how expensive health insurance will be for a senior in 2023?! Further proof the GOP is just working for their privatized friends in high places. As if we needed one more example.

[Lindag10]

Agree with you. As a senior myself, our only hope is that the rest of the people in the country will figure it out and vote these jerks out of office.

[csparish]

Why is it always Medicare the Republican want to do away with? Is it the highest budget item in the country?(hard to believe)They are fanatical, like the program is going to lead this country into the next great depression. Is it that the elderly are the easiest to prey upon? For a country that prides itself on "World Leadership" we certainly have our heads up our butts when it comes to health care.

[slatep]

YOU GOT THAT RIGHT.

[stormerF69]

Why did the Democrats take 500 billion from medicare to start Obamacare? Then whine about any Medicare fixes the republicans come up with?

[sandiegopete]

Under this budget Medicare people would be required to purchase insurance from a private company. How will that work if the Supreme Court finds that the mandate in the health insurance reform law is unconstitutional? It won't. Looks like the Republicans are trying to pull a fast one.

[democracy8]

Seems they just shot themselves in the foot and lost the elderly vote.

[retm-w]

DJ

The republicans are screaming Medicare will be broke in seven years, that would be 2019, ryans plan doesn't do anything for it until 2023 so what happens to seniors for thse four years?

[hindsightis2020]

Over 600,000 died in the civil war because corporate fascists believed they had the right to own and abuse fellow human beings.

"From my narrower perch, where I watched Nixon's "Southern strategy" successfully evolve in his 1968 campaign, it seemed that the roots of our political dysfunction trace back to a shift in southern conservative congressional representation from Democratic to Republican control following the Civil Rights Act of 1964."
Alan Greenspan "The Age of Turbulence" pg246

So today, the corporate fascists/GOP continue to attack fellow Americans to serve themselves and serve the rich just as GeeDubya did so well......