Republicans Release Proposed Budget

House Republicans released their plans Tuesday morning to reduce the federal deficit by $5 trillion over the next decade. Republican Paul Ryan, House Budget Committee Representative, unveiled the plan not as a proposal for legislation, but rather as a guideline for future action in Congress and as a framework for debate between the two parties while heading into the 2012 election. The proposed budget contains extreme cuts for both Medicaid and Medicare programs including the controversial proposal of converting the current Medicare program into a system where instead of paying doctors and hospitals directly, the government pays towards private health insurance plans. This change would not affect current Medicare recipients or those 55 or older. There is no mention of Social Security in the proposed budget, presumably because the political danger is too great. Ryan's plan would produce a federal deficit of under $400 billion after 2018 as compared to Obama's proposed budget that would produce a federal deficit of under $774 billion after 2021. Republicans hope to push their plan through the House as early as next week. The federal deficit crisis is expected to serve as a major point of debate in the upcoming 2012 elections.