House Approves Republican Budget Plan to Cut Trillions

Just one day after Congress concluded its fight over this year’s spending, the House voted 235 to 193 to approve the fiscal blueprint for 2012 drafted by Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin and chairman of the Budget Committee. Besides reconfiguring the Medicare program that now serves those 65 and older, the proposal would cut the top corporate and personal income tax rates while also overhauling the Medicaid health program for the poor.

The vote represents the most ambitious effort yet by the new Republican majority in the House to demonstrate that it intends to aggressively rein in spending and shrink government. It doubles as a challenge to President Obama over which party is more determined to force a sharp shift in the handling of federal dollars.

“The spending spree is over,” Mr. Ryan said. “We cannot keep spending money we don’t have.”

Almost as soon as the budget was approved, Senator Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada and the majority leader, vowed that the plan would never pass the Senate, setting up another tense showdown with House Republicans over spending as well as over an administration request to raise the federal debt limit.

Not a single Democrat voted for the proposal, which will effectively serve as the House Republican bargaining position in talks with the White House and the Democratic Senate over how to reduce annual federal deficits and the accumulated national debt. Four Republicans also voted against it.

Within minutes of the vote, Democrats began attacking Republican lawmakers for supporting the plan.

“Unbelievable! Dean Heller Votes to End Medicare,” the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee headlined an e-mail broadside against Representative Dean Heller, a Republican running for an open Senate seat in Nevada.

On the House floor, Democrats ridiculed the notion that Mr. Ryan’s $3.5 trillion plan for next year was somehow bold for zeroing in on health programs despite political risks. They accused Republicans of promoting a morally skewed vision of America by taking savings out of medical care for older Americans and the poor while supporting tax breaks for corporate America and the affluent. The budget proposal would maintain the tax rates enacted during George W. Bush’s presidency and extended last year.

“It is not courageous to provide additional tax breaks for millionaires while ending the Medicare guarantee for seniors and sticking seniors with the cost of rising health care,” said Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the senior Democrat on the Budget Committee.

Congressional Republicans were eager to take up the budget after Thursday’s approval of legislation that financed the government through Sept. 30. The legislation imposed $38 billion in spending cuts, well short of the $61 billion sought by House Republicans. And the immediate impact of those reductions on the deficit was modest, leading 59 Republicans to oppose the deal struck by Speaker John A. Boehner.

In contrast, the Ryan budget would significantly scale back federal domestic programs and impose the kind of sweeping budget cuts that members of the Republican majority say they came to Washington to pursue.

“Yesterday we cut billions,” said Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the No. 3 House Republican, who called Friday’s budget vote historic. “Today we cut trillions.”

The most politically charged element of the budget plan is a proposal to convert Medicare from a program where the federal government serves as the health insurer for Americans 65 and older to one where older Americans join private health plans that are subsidized by the government.

Republicans defended their proposal as the best way to guarantee the future of a program headed toward insolvency and noted that Americans who are now 55 and older would still be able to participate in the current Medicare program. They accused Democrats of distorting the Medicare proposal while employing scare tactics to stir anti-Republican sentiment among older voters. Mr. Ryan said such political machinations had in the past prevented Congress from taking the difficult steps needed to get the deficit under control.

“We have too many people worried about the next election and not worried about the next generation,” he said.

Acknowledging the political hazards of proposing fundamental changes in a program so popular with the crucial senior voting bloc, Representative Eric Cantor, the Virginia Republican and majority leader, said Republicans saw no choice but to move forward.

“We cannot afford to ignore this coming fiscal train wreck any longer,” Mr. Cantor said. “Complacency is not an option.”

Republicans also said that giving future retirees access to private health plans would provide them with more choices. A Congressional Budget Office review of the Ryan proposal predicted that retirees would pay more for their health care under it than they would under traditional Medicare. The agency also said the Ryan plan to convert federal Medicaid spending into block grants for states would most likely end up reducing benefits for those enrolled in the program.

Democrats promised to press Republicans hard on the budget vote, starting in the two-week Congressional recess that began Friday and continuing through the 2012 elections.

“This is a defining moment, and we will go district by district to hold Republicans accountable for ending Medicare,” said Representative Steve Israel of New York, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Some Republican House members said they had already been contacted by alarmed constituents, and the party leadership urged lawmakers to be prepared to explain their votes over the spring break.

“I think it’s important for our members to go home and talk about the crisis that we face,” Mr. Boehner said. “These are important programs for tens of millions of Americans. And transforming them so they’ll be around for our kids and grandkids is as important as anything that we can do around here.”

Other Republicans said they believed the public was ready for a serious attempt to cut spending — a mood that could blunt the political impact of the House budget.

“The majority of Americans believe the country is headed down the wrong track,” said Representative Cynthia M. Lummis, Republican of Wyoming. “They understand the consequences Washington’s irresponsible culture of spending has for our country’s future.”

But Democrats said that Republicans had committed a political and policy blunder.

“The Republicans have made a major mistake in turning a debate over the budget into a debate over whether to keep or eliminate Medicare,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, the No. 3 Senate Democrat. “The House Republicans have let Tea Party zeal get the better of them, and this vote will reverberate for a long time.”