USA TODAY
WASHINGTON (USA TODAY) -- The U.S. House narrowly approved a conservative budget
plan authored by Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, 221-207, on Thursday on a
largely party-line vote.
The fiscal blueprint does not have the
force of law but outlines the GOP's priorities over a 10-year budget
window to reduce the deficit and overhaul the Medicare system.
No
Democrats voted for the plan. "House Republicans decided to double down
on the failed policies that the American people rejected just a few
months ago," said Senate Budget Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash.
The
Democratic Senate is debating a competing budget Thursday with passage
scheduled Friday. Congress will then adjourn for a two-week spring
recess.
The House also passed a short-term spending bill to avert a
government shutdown that now heads to President Obama for his
signature.
The long-term blueprint is similar to the two previous
budgets authored by Ryan, who chairs the Budget Committee, since
Republicans took control of the House in 2010. Among the most cited and
controversial proposals is a fundamental overhaul of Medicare to a
premium support system for Americans 55 and younger. Future seniors
would be given federal subsidies to buy their own health insurance in
contrast to the current guaranteed benefit system.
Ryan's plan
also achieves balance -- where the federal government does not spend
more than it takes in in revenue -- in 10 years. The timeline is a
dramatic acceleration toward balance than Ryan's previous plan, but
there was a groundswell of support for the more austere plan within the
conservative rank-and-file.
The budget plan raises no new
revenues and cuts the corporate tax rate. It also protects the Pentagon
from cuts while slashing deeper into accounts that fund domestic
agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National
Institutes of Health.
"This budget does more than just balance,"
said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, boasting that it also
authorizes construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline across the U.S.
and fully repeals President Obama's health care law.
The Senate
budget blueprint, authored by Democrats, is more modest, focusing on
equal ratios of about $1 trillion in spending cuts to $1 trillion in new
revenues gained by closing tax loopholes. Their budget lowers the ratio
of debt to the overall economy, but it chooses job growth and
infrastructure spending over balancing the budget and overhauling
entitlements as the best way to boost economic growth.
"The budget
the Senate Democrats are considering never balances - ever. Which quite
frankly means more debt, fewer jobs and less security for the American
people," Boehner said.
The House also overwhelmingly approved
Thursday, 318-109, a federal spending bill to keep the government funded
through Sept. 30, averting a March 27 shutdown. The spending bill
includes measures to give the Pentagon and other agencies more
flexibility to implement automatic spending cuts -- known as
sequestration -- that kicked in March 1. The Senate passed the same bill
Wednesday.