Reid: The Senate Will Vote On Paul Ryan's Budget

WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced on Wednesday that he would host a vote on Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget as a means of forcing moderate GOP senators to weigh in on the legislation’s controversial proposals. He did not provide a specific date for when that vote will take place.

“There will be an opportunity in the Senate to vote on the Ryan budget to see if Republican senators like the Ryan budget as much as the House did,” Reid said on a conference call with reporters. “Without going into the Ryan budget we will see how much the Republicans like it here in the Senate.”

Reid, who had been traveling with other senators in China, accused the Ryan plan of fundamentally changing Medicare and burdening health care consumers with uncertainty and higher costs. By holding a vote on the bill -- which his own party will vote against en masse –- the majority leader is hoping to not only drive a wedge within the GOP but keep the Ryan budget in the news.

This past week, protesters have disrupted a number of town hall events hosted by GOP lawmakers, airing their concerns about drastic spending cuts, lower tax rates and changes to Medicare and Medicaid. House Republicans voted to pass the Ryan budget with only three defections. But the legislation always seemed likely to get a far tougher reception among Republicans in the Senate, where moderates Scott Brown (R-Mass.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) are up for re-election in 2012.

Reid said that he wanted to see if Republicans in his chamber would be as supportive of the plan as those in the House. But his hope, he added, was that the Ryan budget would ultimately fail (as is likely to happen in a Democratic-controlled Senate).

"It would be one of the worst things that happened to this country if that thing came into effect," Reid said, of the Ryan budget possibly passing.

Comments

[Jamie Lemon]

04:41 PM on 05/26/2011

Please call all Senators and voice your oppostion against this 'Ryans Plan' this is a dangerous fed bill. If looked at closley will not provide relief from the deficit but tax cuts for the wealthy. Out of $4.3 trillion in Ryans Plan in savings, $4.2 of it will go to tax cuts.

also problem: The disabled will get short changed. cuts in all disabled programs, like insurance, job training, transportation and more. Autism is on the rise 1 out of 110 1 out of 88 military families. How is that fair for the men and women serving our countries?

Medicaid will change to a 'block grant' leaves cash-strapped states to fill in the funding gaps with very LITTLE oversight!

I have left the Republican party because of people like Ryan. Call your senator this is undemocratic and inhumane

[pbarr]

04:19 PM on 05/16/2011

When?

[brainfire]

02:20 AM on 04/29/2011

Repugs/TeaKlanners = no home, no retirement, no health care, no jobs, no teachers, no roads or bridges, no clean water or air, no safe food, no safety nets......NO BRAINS....NO AMERICA (#!#) http://rockthevote.com/

[Max is Back]

07:36 PM on 04/28/2011

Why does Paul Ryan want to shove Reapercare down our throats?
 
Why does he want to exterminate Medicare and feed the elderly like cattle into the hands of corporate death panels?
 
Why does the Tea Bagger Reapercare plan not save a single penny once you factor in their giveaways to billionaires?

[carolo]

08:40 PM on 05/23/2011

Easy. The insurance companies would love to get rid of Medicare. Getting people off Government Medicare and into private healthcare means lots and lots of money for new insurance policies. The insurance lobbists have been in the republicans back pockets for years and gives them a ton of money for campaign contributions. The republicans are simply attempting to return the favor so those big donations continue to arrive.

[TheAlchemist]

05:52 PM on 04/28/2011

I'd like to see a vote just so I could see Sen Kirk take an actual stand on the subject. When I called his office to find out where he stands on the issue, I didn't get an answer.

[Genatomics]

01:06 PM on 04/28/2011

You know, I have read some of Ryan's spiel, and what strikes me is that he says that his proposal will lower healthcare costs. How does he even begin to believe this, seeing that health costs have done nothing but rise for as long as ins. companies have been involved in it, which is why there is such a thing as Medicare in the first place? I would like him, or any GOP'er to explain this single point clearly. I mean, if that were true, then healthcare would be reasonable already, and there would be no need for HC or Medicare entitlement reform, right?

[simplecitizen]

12:58 PM on 04/28/2011

The downfall of the Republican Party is taking place right before our eyes. The Democrats have all the ammunition they need to strip the Republicans bare and expose them for what they are; captives of the extreme delusional right wing of their party and captives of the corporations who are destroying the middle class and the guts and sinew of this wonderful country. The Democrats must not waiver in their pursuit of this advantage and must not chicken out as usual at the last moment.The Trumps, the Ryans,the Boehners, the Palins, the Bachmanns et al are scared now and they should be. Can it be that mainstream Americans are finally waking up to the truth and turning off the sitcoms to get some news about what is going on in America. One can only hope and pray. Democrats must recapture the House and build on their advantage in the Senate next year.

[hgus]

04:56 PM on 04/28/2011

Crazy thought here. Is this the downfall of the GOP or is this the death rattle of racism.

After the birth certificate issue and the Affirmative Action inferences leveled by Trump (added to the "Secret Muslim" and "terrorist fist bump" and "un American" comments) it has become abundantly clear that the Birther movement represented an insidious form of racism.

Reasonable republicans are trying, but failing to quell this fact, because clearly the racist vote republican.

Reasonable people are going to start to see that this is nothing other than racism and start pushing these 2nd generation klan members to the fringe. In the same way that Animal rights activist (when they got violent) were isolated from the Democratic party.

[tundra599]

05:24 PM on 04/28/2011

Recall that the so called "birther" movement originated in the Hillary Clinton campaign and the first lawsuit brought forward against Obama's eligibility to be president was by Hillary supporters.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/aug/28/lawsuit-questions-obamas-eligibility-for-office/

[SaveTheMarshMouse]

12:54 PM on 04/28/2011

He will call the vote as soon as Heller is seated...forcing dean to show his true colors to the state of nevada...ba gg er s are going to be mad if he votes "no" and challege him with an extreme candidate...if he votes "yes" he will lose moderates and independents in the general and guarantee the senate seat in 2012 to the dems...hahahahahah

[politicsRfun]

12:52 PM on 04/28/2011

While my original reaction is to say Let's Vote now!

It would be a better if there was a real vote on a real budget and less political theater. Watching repubs squirm and try to convince everyone their bill doesn't destroy medicare, while it clearly does, is fun but I am not sure it can be sustained through the election.

[Unlackey]

02:09 PM on 04/28/2011

You are right. And I doubt that it will. My fear is that with the amount money available through Citizen's United, the fallacious Ryan plan will become seen somehow as acceptable.

[Pollitrix]

04:53 PM on 05/10/2011

I don't think it will happen because the chickens have come home to roost. Republican voters are reminding themselves they are on Medicare and Social Security as well and they are not just cutting of the Democrats.

[returnofthejedi]

12:41 PM on 04/28/2011

Many republicans will probably vote no. Saying it does not go far enough. We will all know why they really vote no though.

[jackstraw 67]

12:12 PM on 04/28/2011

I would not be surprised if they fillbuster it so they do not have to vote and go on record either for the bill or against the Party

[DCB]

12:10 PM on 04/28/2011

national polling shows large percentages against the Ryan bill, numbers beyond the usual party line splits. video clips I see on news n cable depict upset citizens expressing themselves without instigators...troublemakers. Its just normal constituents getting involved.
I'm hoping for a sea-change, in a decade or sooner, sanity is restored in tax laws that favor the nation, not the corporate/hedge/bigbank clubs that horde ever larger snippings off the coins of wage earners. Check out past tax rates on very high incomes...then compare to today and Ryan's push for even lower taxes for BIG money. boggles the mind.

[newfacedlogic]

01:33 PM on 04/28/2011

Well said. I have a hard time explaining my frustration with the whole thing without showing my temper.

[tundra599]

05:27 PM on 04/28/2011

I really need to sit down and spend a few hours going over Ryan's plan, but I thought that in addition to lower tax rates that there are several loopholes/deductions reduced or eliminated. Not sure if that would mean a higher tax rate, but I thought that both are addressed.

[mmsuki]

12:05 PM on 04/28/2011

Senator Reid, let's have the vote today. I want to see how Scott Brown votes.

[returnofthejedi]

12:40 PM on 04/28/2011

He will vote no if he has any sense.

[hgus]

04:48 PM on 04/28/2011

Scott Brown has shown himself to be a remotely reasonable person. he has already said he doesn't like this bill. The tea party will likely try to take him down.

[kimleehan]

12:00 PM on 04/28/2011

Middle class Republicans are Un-American as fried rice

[jasdmd0]

11:57 AM on 04/28/2011

I think the corollarly question of how will the multiple moderate democrats up for re-election in 2012 vote on this alos applies. Especially those in states that don't border the Atlantic or the Pacific where there's an every increasing support to take real steps to tackle the national debt.

This could get interesting if it happens to get through the senate and onto Pres Obama's desk. His actions then would be a defining moment about what one of the key 2012 campaign issues will be

[ProudLiberalDan]

12:00 PM on 04/28/2011

Not one single Democrat in the House, not even one Blue Dog, voted to end Medicare in order to finance cutting taxes on the superwealthy by one-third. Not one.

Not one single Democrat in the House will vote to end Medicare either.

The question to ask is whether or not the three remaining moderate Republicans in the Senate will dare to cross the right-wing extremists that hijacked their party.

[DredLockRasta]

12:38 PM on 04/28/2011

Awesome post!!! Nothing but the facts. No democrat in the Senate will vote for ryans' budget plan.

[politicsRfun]

12:55 PM on 04/28/2011

Wouldn't it be nice to expect that kind of support from all dems all the time?
Right now rounding up dems looks a lot like herding cats. Frustration is the least of it.

[ThunderclapNewman]

12:01 PM on 04/28/2011

by a margin of 3 to 1, Americans oppose Ryan's plan.

[RNP2233]

12:45 PM on 04/28/2011

same numbers at Obamacare- Wow but i am sure you whacko's still think that was great