Senate Defeats House Budget Plan as Expected

The Senate defeated the House-passed FY2012 budget resolution this afternoon, as expected. According to the New York Times, the vote was 40-57, with five Republicans joining Democrats to reject the plan developed by House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI).

The Ryan plan has been deeply criticized primarily because of the changes it would make to Medicare. Yesterday a Democrat won a congressional district in upstate New York usually held by Republicans. It was a special election to replace a Republican Congressman who resigned amid scandal. Many commentators credit the Democratic win as backlash against the proposed Medicare changes.

Senate Democrats recently decided not to put forward their own budget proposal, but to use the House-passed version to put Republicans on record as supporting the Ryan plan or not. It is part of the political theater ongoing as Republicans and Democrats square off on how to reduce the deficit. According to the most recent reports, the two sides are about $1 trillion apart (reflecting spending over 10 years), with Republicans wanting to balance the budget by cutting government spending, and Democrats preferring to balance it by both cutting spending and raising taxes.