Senate rejects Ryan budget; vote puts GOP on the spot

[White Eagle]

Well, the deed is done. The Senate voted Ryans bill down. Not really surprised at Snowe, Collins, Brown and Murkowski, but Rand Paul was a surprise. Til I noticed he wants deeper cuts.


http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_new...ejects-ryan-budget-vote-puts-gop-on-the-spot-

Senate rejects Ryan budget; vote puts GOP on the spot

From Carrie Dann and Libby Leist
Senate Democrats forced a vote Wednesday on the controversial fiscal plan drafted by House Budget chief Paul Ryan, splitting the Republican caucus and forcing several vulnerable GOP senators who are up for re-election to go on the record supporting or opposing sweeping changes to the nation’s Medicare system.

The vote on the measure – which failed as expected -- came on the heels of a decisive Democratic victory Tuesday night in a New York special election that focused heavily on the proposed Medicare changes.

Moderate Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine were joined by Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska in breaking with Republican leaders to oppose the Ryan plan.

Snowe and Brown are up for re-election in 2012.

Tea Party-backed Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky also voted against the budget, saying its proposed spending cuts are not deep enough.

 

[bike10]

Going to be long season for the GOP.

 

[Kulindahr]

Here in Oregon we're feeling the effects of Republican idiocy. We could use another stimulus bill aimed solely at infrastructure. Our rail connection to the rest of the world washed out in a big storm last year (clocked wind gusts over 150 mph and gave us three inches of rain in one afternoon), and the FEMA grant and insurance didn't come to enough to fix it. So although the rebuilding of a stretch of US 101 aided some, businesses that counted on the railroad to ship products have been leaving.

So it's nice to know that one house of Congress can get it right and not try to make the economy worse. But there's little hope that any desire to compromise will emerge from the iconoclast Luddite Republicans in the House, with their fantasy world of economics.

Nice to see the son of Dr. No becoming "Mini-No".

 

[Hisakiwa21]

Open Season... Republicans

I think the rejection of the budget may possibly pushed the federal government because it was struggling to keep the doors on every federal building open from being shutting down because we haven't reached a budget in the middle of the year!

 

[Kulindahr]

it never had a chance.

any time someone even thinks about medicare reform, they're immediately branded as trying to force grandma to eat cat food and sell her jewelry to pay for her meds.

it's going to ruin our country because everyone in Washington is unwilling to like, declare a political truce to actually seriously discuss it.

(granted, the Ryan plan was retarded, but it was nice to see someone willing to broach the subject)

Given that Medicare pays sometimes less than half the cost of medical services, it's already "cut" pretty badly -- and already requires people to buy insurance.

Cut it back any more, and no one will step forward to provide supplemental insurance at all.

 

[Kulindahr]

I don't really know enough about it to say that I'm in favor of cuts, but reforms for sure.

it would have been nice if the Dems countered the Ryan plan by saying "how about instead, we start by allowing medicare to negotiate for prescription drug prices and see how much that saves us."

That would have been an excellent response.

 

[chance1]

would like to see a prominent democrat come up with an idea on how to save medicare

would like that

 

[SteveyBoyLA]

would like to see a prominent democrat come up with an idea on how to save medicare

would like that

I agree. Ryan does get credit for at least proposing a solution.

However, I think there is a fundamental roadblock in philosophies: the role of government and the use it's power to negotiate cost caps for medical procedures versus the GOP plan of turning over cost controls to investor owned insurances and the profit-driven health care industry. We've seen enough of our privatized model of health insurance coverage e.g., denying it for trival pre-exisiting conditions leaving folks vulnerable to paying bills they cannot afford, to create doubt in the GOP plan. On the other hand, government is not known for its institutional efficiencies.

My view is that we should blend the two in controlling costs: use private market efficiencies with government oversight to ensure that insurance companies and health providers play by the rules. I wish we could give both parties credit for coming w/ the best plan to control health care costs, but that would require them to actually work together versus political posturing.

 

[chance1]

as soon as they do, the GOP is just going to spam the airwaves with ads about how they're trying to destroy medicare and force grandma to sell her house to pay for her meds.

well that wouldn't be very original now would it ?

 

[rareboy]

The question isn't about saving medicare.

The question is about getting the rich and the corporations to pay their taxes.

And for the US to start regarding healthcare as an equal to the Pentagon.

Quite possibly, if the Americans were as concerned with domestic issues as dropping bombs, they might be able to divert more of the tax income to creating a more broadly based service economy in their own country that helps raise the health and education and economic status of more of its citizens than pumping billions of borrowed dollars into arming foreign powers and then playing at war in the far parts of the world.

 

[NineOfClubs]

Well, the Ryan budget did better in the Senate than the Obama budget.

The budget proposal released by the White House back in February didn’t win a single vote in the Senate on Wednesday— the final tally was 0-97. Senate Republicans pushed for the vote as a counterpoint to the defeat of Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget plan.

POLITICO’s David Rogers reports: “The vote on the president’s plan turned into a rout, with neither Republicans nor Democrats voting in favor of taking it up. At one level, the 97-0 vote showed how out-of-date the February requests can seem after so much has changed in the spending debate already this year. But for Democrats, it also proved a convenient way to mask their substantial internal differences over how to proceed” on addressing the government’s fiscal problems.

http://www.politico.com/politico44/perm/0511/_7afd0b1d-fd69-4f0b-9fa9-c5e98b5cb77a.html

 

[Kulindahr]

Not surprising when the thing was written months ago.

They should ask the White House for a budget for today.

 

[NineOfClubs]

Not surprising when the thing was written months ago.

They should ask the White House for a budget for today.

No.

The Senate should write a budget of its own, put it out there.

You know. Do their job....

 

[Centexfarmer]

No.

The Senate should write a budget of its own, put it out there.

You know. Do their job....

Now you're just talking crazy.

 

[rareboy]

It seems ridiculous that each branch is preparing a budget.

Christ. By the time the 2 official peoples' parties of the US finish paralyzing the other side with their stinging tails, it amazes one that the country ever gets a budget passed at all.

I'm actually amazed that the Judiciary wasn't also given a crack at it.