MNI

By John Shaw
--House Republican Majority Poised To Defeat Several FY2015 Alternatives
--Rep. Van Hollen Says GOP's Offering Of Obama Budget Is 'Political Stunt'
--House Expected To Pass Budget Chairman Ryan's GOP Plan Thursday

WASHINGTON (MNI) - The House Republican majority is preparing to mow down a host of alternative budgets Wednesday evening and then pass Thursday the fiscal year 2015 budget resolution offered by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan.

Before voting on the Ryan budget, the House is set to reject the House Democratic budget and proposals from the Republican Study Committee, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Progressive Caucus and President Barack Obama.

Obama's budget is being proposed by House Republicans in an apparent attempt to show how little support the president's plan has.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, sent a letter to House Democrats Wednesday calling the vote on the Obama budget a "political stunt" and "partisan ploy" by the GOP.

"This amendment is simply a distraction from the real issue before the House this week--the destructive Republican budget, which will undermine job growth, slash critical investments in education and our nation's future, and violate our promises to seniors," Van Hollen writes.

He said the Congressional Budget Office has not yet scored Obama's budget.

The House will vote Thursday on Ryan's budget which was approved last week by the House Budget Committee on a party line vote.

Ryan's ten-year budget blends Congressional Budget Office economic and deficit estimates with his own dynamic scoring and balances the federal budget through more than $5 trillion in spending savings over a decade. It achieve a small surplus by 2024 by overhauling Medicare, Medicaid, and repealing most of the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

Van Hollen has blasted Ryan's budget as both draconian and fraudulent. He said Ryan's claim to generate a small surplus in FY2024 is inaccurate because Ryan claims to repeal the 2010 health care law but then uses more than $700 billion of its Medicare savings and $1 trillion of its revenues for his own purposes.

Ryan and other Republican leaders have ripped into Van Hollen's alternative, saying it would raise taxes by $1.8 trillion but never even approach reaching budget balance.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray has decided not to offer her own FY2015 budget resolution this spring. She has said the two year agreement she reached in December with Ryan obviates the need for a FY2015 budget resolution.

The Murray-Ryan agreement set discretionary spending levels for fiscal years 2014 and 2015. The FY2015 discretionary spending level is $1.014 trillion.

Budget law, however, requires Congress to pass a budget resolution each year by April 15 that sets out multi-year spending and revenue levels and makes deficit estimates.

--MNI Washington Bureau; tel: +1 202-371-2121; email: jshaw@mni-news.com

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