House Republicans Tuesday are expected to unveil a budget plan for 2012 that offers significant cuts in federal spending and a sweeping restructuring of Medicare and Medicaid to reduce the nation’s massive deficit. The plan, authored by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., would cut spending by $4 trillion over the next decade, exceeding the reductions proposed by President Obama’s own deficit commission.
But if the current budget negotiations are any indication, Ryan’s proposal faces an uphill battle for passage in Congress.
Republicans and Democrats have yet to agree on far less significant cuts in the budget for the current fiscal year, which is more than half over, and if they can’t strike a deal by Friday, when the latest temporary funding measure expires, they risk at least a partial government shutdown. Republicans are demanding $61 billion in cuts. Democrats are offering $33 billion.
“Despite attempts by Democrats to lock in a number among themselves, I’ve made clear that their $33 billion is not enough and many of the cuts that the White House and Senate Democrats are talking about are full of smoke and mirrors,” House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said on Monday.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., blamed the impasse on GOP lawmakers backed by the Tea Party, who he said “refuse to recognize that their budget is a simply appalling proposal.”
The political infighting at the very least offers a preview of the forthcoming 2012 budget battle, which promises to be far more acrimonious because the partisan divide over spending will be much wider.
Ryan’s plan would convert Medicare into a program that provides subsidies for health insurance and it would change Medicaid into a program funded partly by federal block grants to the states.
“We’ve had so much testimony from so many different governors saying give us the freedom to customize our Medicaid programs, to tailor for our unique populations in our states,” Ryan said on “Fox News Sunday”. “We want to get governors freedom to do that.”
Ryan’s plan also calls for “pro-growth tax reform,” which is another way of proposing tax cuts for corporations with the expectation that they would promote economic growth.
Democrats are already balking at Ryan’s proposal.
“It is now clear that the Republican budget is not bold, but the same old ideological agenda that extends tax breaks to millionaires and big oil companies while cutting our kids’ education and health security for seniors,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.
But some political observers believe Ryan’s budget plan can be used as a blueprint for spending and that at least some aspects of the proposal could pass both chambers.
“I would expect it will ultimately lead to a budget that is a big step forward if you are a small-government person,” said Kevin Hassett, a senior fellow and the director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.
