Dems May Propose Counter '12 Budget

The Hill reports:

House Democrats are "likely" to propose a 2012 budget bill to counter the much-hyped GOP blueprint set for release Tuesday, according to a House Budget Committee aide.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), the senior Democrat on the Budget panel, is still weighing his options, the staffer emphasized, but is leaning toward offering an alternative to the plan Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) will unveil this week.

"It is likely," the staffer said Monday, "but he's still talking to folks and he's still undecided."

The aide said Democratic leaders are waiting to gauge the public reaction to Ryan's plan, which would reduce projected federal spending by more than $4 trillion over the next decade, largely by cutting payments to Medicare and Medicaid.

With the Budget Committee slated to mark up the GOP bill this week, Van Hollen won't finalize his decision before next week, the staffer said.

The decision is not without a political component. In the last Congress, Democrats often went after the minority Republicans for criticizing Democratic proposals without offering alternatives of their own. By proposing a separate budget bill, Democrats would avoid similar attacks this year.

President Obama has also offered a 2012 budget blueprint, which would freeze discretionary spending for five years and reduce the deficit by roughly $1 trillion over the next 10. While most Democrats have supported the overall proposal, however, many in the caucus are also wary of a number of individual provisions, including proposed cuts to community block grants and a popular energy- subsidy program for low-income people.

Ryan on Sunday slammed Obama's proposal, arguing that current spending levels need to be slashed, not frozen. Ryan also criticized the absence of entitlement reform in Obama's 2012 budget.

"He does nothing to address the drivers of our debt," Ryan said on "Fox News Sunday." "He's punting on the budget and not doing a thing to prevent a debt crisis."