Flaylo
Handsome Devil
- Feb 10, 2010
- 5,899
- 745
House GOP Opts For Safe Route On Budget, Moving Away From Paul Ryan Plan
Beaten prostrate after listening to the demands of the Tea Party, they're making a half hearted attempt to reach across the isle, lol.
Republicans controlling the House are opting for the politically safe route as they follow up their tightfisted, tea party-driven budget with less controversial steps to cut spending.
Instead of big reductions in Medicaid and Medicare, top GOP lawmakers are sticking mostly with familiar proposals like cutting money for President Barack Obama's health care overhaul and federal employee pensions while reaching out to Democrats to help pass annual spending bills.
At issue is follow-up legislation to the sweeping budget document that passed the House last month. Under Congress' arcane budget process, it's simply a nonbinding blueprint that sets the terms for follow-up legislation.
The broader GOP plan, by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., also calls for cutting day-to-day operating budgets for domestic agencies $19 billion below last summer's bipartisan budget and debt deal.
Republicans strongly backed the Ryan plan last month as a first step in tackling out of control deficits. It's also a campaign document that casts in stark relief the differences between Republicans and Democrats on spending and deficits with an election little more than six months away.
But steps to actually try to pass the full Ryan budget into law aren't happening; with Obama in the White House and Democrat controlling the Senate, any attempt to follow up the Ryan plan with binding legislation is doomed to fail. So GOP leaders like Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, appear to have decided that there's no sense in making GOP lawmakers walk the plank and cast numerous politically dangerous votes on issues like Medicare.
Beaten prostrate after listening to the demands of the Tea Party, they're making a half hearted attempt to reach across the isle, lol.