Paul Ryan

When Paul Ryan came out with his plan to save Medicare, he opened the door for Nancy Pelosi to regain her position as speaker and she immediately knew that. It was a gift to her and the opportunity for the Democrats to regain control of the house and everyone knew it. The old time Republican leadership wanted to keep quiet until Obama came out with a plan but he didn’t have one. The budget he proposed in Feb was voted down by the Senate 97 to 0. It was then that pressure from the Tea Party and the newly elected 87 members of the house convinced the Republican leadership to cave and allow the Ryan plan to come to a vote. Now the Republicans are on the record of supporting changes to Medicare. At this point Pelosi is putting pressure on Obama to give up whatever but not to mention Medicare. Up to this point he has talked about Medicare but has put nothing in writing. He has said that he would reduce the fees paid to hospitals and doctors but that is about it. If he refuses to say any more he will put the Democrats in a strong position to recapture the house because they will demagogue the Ryan plan to death. They have already started with the ad showing grandma being pushed over the cliff. The Ryan plan was voted on and put forward but Obama has not responded. Rather than present a plan he just criticizes the Ryan plan and the press allows him to get away with that. I suspect that when all the dust settles we will once more push the can down the road and the idea of taking on entitlements will have to wait for some future date. For the first two years of Obama’s presidency the Democrats controlled both houses and during that time did not propose a budget. The government has now gone over 800 days without a budget.
The federal budget process is similar to the regular legislative process, but it is also different in some very important ways. First, because the Constitution requires that any bill raising revenue must originate in the House of Representatives, the House has traditionally taken the lead in the budget process.
Another distinctive feature of the budget process is that the President's role is more formalized and, therefore, significant. The Congress, by statute, has required the President to submit a budget to the Congress each year. By doing so, the President establishes the starting point and the framework of the annual budget debate.
There can be no honest debate until Obama submits his budget which he will not do unless he is forced to. As it stands now we can openly criticize the Ryan Plan but cannot criticize a plan that is non-existent.
The President has said many times that the deficit is a big problem and he wants to raise taxes on the rich but he wants to use the money to invest in education and infrastructure not to pay down the debt. This is now called revenue and invest instead of tax and spend and that is all that has changed.