So the Republican’s produce another plan lets see what the Demoncrats do. Don’t hold your breath though. Once this hits the Senate we all know Harry Reid and his radical majority rule will torpedo this proposal. The Senate has failed to do anything to cut the debt and spending in over a 1000 days. Think back the first 2 years of Obama’s reign of power the demoncrats had complete power and did nothing. They got Obamacare through with the majority of power they held, yet we hear time and again those pesky Republicans are the problem. No sorry, you demoncrats are the problem. With a coming election there is no way they are going to take an axe to entitlement… unsustainable entitlement programs. Even if they did pass these cuts, do you really believe anything will be signed by Emperor Obama?
House Republicans unveil budget blueprint
WASHINGTON – House Republicans teed off an election-year fight with the White House and their Democratic colleagues Tuesday, unveiling a much-anticipated budget which Rep. Paul Ryan said would move America away from a “dependent culture.”
The plan reprises a controversial proposal first pitched last year which would overhaul Medicare for those under 55 today. The plan would let those beneficiaries choose from a list of plans, including the traditional fee-for-service Medicare plan as well as private plans which the government would subsidize.
“We believe competition and choices should be the way forward versus price controls that leads to rationing,” Ryan, R-Wis., said at a press conference Tuesday.
The plan would also dramatically simplify the tax code, condensing the six-bracket system into two brackets for individuals — one at 10, the other at 25 percent.
The GOP plan released by the House Budget Committee chairman would, if enacted into law, prescribe far less spending than President Obama’s budget. It claims deficit cuts totaling $3.3 trillion — spending cuts of $5.3 trillion tempered by $2 trillion in lower taxes — below Obama’s plan over the coming decade.
The deficit in 2015, for example, would drop to about $300 billion from $1.2 trillion for the current budget year.
But the plan is sure to hit resistance from many on the Democratic side, as it makes cuts to Medicaid, food stamps, Pell Grants and other Obama priorities.
“It’s deja vu all over again,” Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said Tuesday. He said the plan would make Medicare unrecognizable compared with its original form.
Republicans say the new approach on Medicare forces competition upon a wasteful health care system, lowering cost increases and giving senior more options. But Democratic opponents of the idea say the new system — designed by Ryan and liberal Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon — cuts costs too steeply and would provide the elderly with a steadily shrinking menu of options and higher out-of-pocket costs.
Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., chief deputy GOP whip, said the plan addresses a critical and looming crisis.
“This is the most predictable event in history — that is a debt crisis of the United States, if we don’t act,” Roskam told Fox News.
The measure would, overall, cut spending from $3.6 trillion this year to the $3.5 trillion range in 2013 and freeze it at that level for two more years.
The GOP plan stands in sharp contrast to the budget released by Obama last month, which relied on tax increases on the wealthy but mostly left alone key benefit programs like Medicare.
The resulting political battle is sure to spill into the presidential race and contests for control of the House and Senate this fall. As if to underscore that reality, Ryan released a campaign-style video Monday evening telling viewers that “Americans have a choice to make” in a none-too-subtle appeal to voters.
“It’s up to the people to demand from their government a better budget, a better plan, and a choice between two futures,” Ryan said. “The question is: which future will we choose?” Read More