President Barack Obama's Republican foes in the US House of Representatives muscled their politically risky budget to passage Friday, calling it the cure to out-of-control government spending. In an almost perfectly party-line vote, lawmakers voted 235-193 to approve the non-binding spending blueprint crafted by Republican Representative Paul Ryan and roundly denounced by Democrats from Obama on down.
Ryan's budget aims to cut some $4.4 trillion from deficits over the next decade, slash taxes on the richest Americans and corporations, and cut the Medicare and Medicaid health programs for the elderly, poor, and disabled. "It's a serious step in the right direction. And I'm really hopeful that the president will take his job as seriously as we're taking ours," Republican House Speaker John Boehner said ahead of the vote.
The measure seemed sure to die in the Democratic-held Senate. Democrats have pounded away at the Medicare and Medicaid cuts, warning elderly voters who helped Republicans rout them in November elections that enacting the blueprint would destroy the popular health programs.
"Do you realise that your leadership is asking you to cast a vote today to abolish Medicare as we know it?" Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a speech on the House floor. Ryan's plan aims to limit the potential political damage by keeping benefits intact for people currently 55 years old or over while selling younger voters on the idea that the cuts are the price of saving the popular programs.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.