House's Budget Blueprint Draws Up Party Lines

House Republicans passed their 2012 budget Friday without a single Democrat voting for it. Its prospects in the Democratically controlled Senate appear dim at best, but it will likely provide plenty of fodder for next year's campaigns.

To begin with, House Republicans are not all that crazy about the 2011 budget deal approved on Thursday — it was, after all, a compromise with Democrats to prevent a government shutdown. Fifty-nine Republicans, about a quarter of the GOP caucus, voted against it, and Speaker John Boehner had to rely on the votes of Democrats to get it passed. On Friday, Boehner portrayed that budget as an opening for Republicans to do what they really want to do.

"It was an imperfect bill, but it was a positive step that has cleared the decks and allowed us to focus on cutting trillions of dollars — not just billions," he said.

And that's exactly what the Republican budget for 2012 does. It cuts nearly $6 trillion in spending over the next 10 years and chops 10 percentage points off the top tax rates. The new health care law gets axed in the budget, and, perhaps most significantly, the document proposes transforming Medicare.

Medicare's Future In The Balance

The House's 2012 budget proposes a system in which elderly people would buy private health insurance with a government-issued voucher. Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) says that part of the plan, which would take effect 10 years from now, is all about protecting Medicare.

"We save Medicare, prevent its bankruptcy, and what does the other side do? They sit by and watch the program go bankrupt," he said.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/04/16/135464222/house-passes-2012-budget-sets-campaign-stage?ft=1&f=1014

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