The House approved a spending framework
Thursday that would shave more than $5 trillion of expected spending, advancing
Rep. Paul Ryan’s final budget proposal on a largely party-line vote.
The Wisconsin Republican, whose term as Budget Committee
chairman expires later this year, offered a last fiscal framework that included
his controversial overhaul of Medicare and other entitlement programs, while
also advocating a reduction of top individual tax rates down to 25 percent.
Democrats blasted the proposal as a “windfall tax break for millionaires”, as
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) described it, and they vowed to make the 2014
midterm elections a referendum on Ryan’s proposals and its impact on the middle
class.
The vote on Ryan’s budget, which followed the rejection of
several other proposals, including Van Hollen’s, was 219 Republicans for the
measure and 193 Democrats opposing it. Twelve Republicans voted against the
Ryan measure, most of those believing that it was not conservative enough.
The debate was even more symbolic than most budget debates,
as Ryan and his Senate Budget Committee counterpart, Sen. Patty Murray
(D-Wash.), reached a two-year budget framework in December that is serving as
the baseline for doling out federal funds in 2014 and 2015. Senate Democrats
have announced they will not even hold the usual annual budget debate because
of the Ryan-Murray agreement.
Ryan still put forward an austere proposal that built largely
on his previous three proposals, calling his plan “a question of trust”
in the closing moments of the debate. “We trust the American people,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment