US approves spending plan with $6-tn cuts

The US House yesterday passed a Republican budget that would cut spending by more than $6 trillion over a decade and privatise Medicare in a party-line vote that will help define the fight over the deficit into next year’s elections.

By a vote of 235-193, lawmakers approved House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s proposal a day after wrapping up their first budget battle of the year with passage of a $38.5 billion spending cut for 2011.

“Yesterday we cut billions, today we cut trillions,” said Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House’s third- ranking Republican.

The measure is certain to die in the Senate, where Democratic leaders have endorsed President Barack Obama’s competing call to reduce the deficit through a combination of tax increases and spending cuts.

“The House Republicans have let Tea Party zeal get the better of them, and this vote will reverberate for a long time,” said Senator Charles Schumer, his chamber’s third- ranking Democrat. “In the months to come, we will not miss a single opportunity to remind the public that Republicans voted to end Medicare in order to give extra tax breaks for millionaires.”

No Democrat voted for Ryan’s plan, and four Republicans also opposed it: Representatives Denny Rehberg of Montana, David McKinley of West Virginia, Walter Jones of North Carolina and Ron Paul of Texas.

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
Rehberg, who is running next year for the Senate, said in a statement: “There are still too many unanswered questions with regard to Medicare reform, and I simply won’t support any plan until I know for a fact that Montana’s seniors will be protected.”

White House spokesman Jay Carney said “the president agrees with House Republicans that we must reduce our deficit and put our country on a fiscally sound path, but we disagree with their approach.”

Carney also said “any solution will require Republicans and Democrats working together, and we are committed to that process.”

The proposal from Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, relies exclusively on spending cuts to reduce the government’s deficit, slicing $6.2 trillion over 10 years from Medicare and scores of other programs including Medicaid, food stamps, farm subsidies and Pell college tuition grants.