Congress is expected to vote today on the fiscal year 2010 budget.
President Barack Obama's budget proposal calls for nearly $77 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services and includes funding to correct the Medicare physician payment structure, advance health IT and expand research of care comparative effectiveness.
On Wednesday, House Budget Committee Ranking Republican Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) issued an alternative budget that he called "The Path to American Prosperity." He said his plan would rein in spending, beginning with a repeal of the recently passed stimulus package after this year. Last week, he pleaded with conservative Democrats to back the Republican plan.
Rob Nabors, deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said the Republican plan lacks details. During a Wednesday telephone press conference, he said any budget plan has to hold together and contain a vision of the economic future. "Our criticism and complaint is that it isn't a plan. It's talking points that don't get you to where they are trying to go," he said.
Nabors said the White House has tried to work with Republicans and has welcomed productive ideas. Of the Republican budget, he said, "there are not as many good ideas as we had hoped for."
Republicans are concerned they will not get a chance for fair debate on the budget if it passes by a majority. Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, on Wednesday urged Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, the nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, to reject what he called the misuse of budget reconciliation to enact healthcare reform.
"Misusing the budget process to write health care reform behind closed doors is unacceptable and betrays the promise of transparency, bipartisanship and a new tone in Washington," Enzi said. "Using reconciliation shuts out members of the minority party, but it will also shut out many centrist Democrats."
A March 20 report by the Congressional Budget Office predicted the president's budget would produce $9.3 trillion worth of debt from 2010 to 2019. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, said the Democrat plan would unfairly saddle America's children with debt.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), who has called healthcare "the 800 pound gorilla," defended the president's investment in future healthcare reform that, he said, will likely not bear fruit for more than six years. He also defended the president's reserve fund to address Medicare physician payments.
"President Bush has left President Obama a hard hand to play: an economy in crisis and a budget in deep deficit — in deficit this year alone by $1.752 trillion," added House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt (D-S.C.). "President Obama has responded with a budget that meets the challenge head-on."
The House version of the budget, approved March 25, reflects the president's major priorities, Spratt said.