House GOP To Unveil Budget Blueprint

WASHINGTON (AP) — Eager to draw a contrast with President Barack Obama on taxes and spending, Republicans controlling the House are releasing an election-year budget plan that would impose sharp cuts on many programs but would still fail to reach balance over the coming decade.

Republicans are expected to propose politically sensitive curbs on Medicare — though less dramatic than they proposed last year — and they're already rewriting last year's budget pact with Obama to cut domestic agency budgets.

The resulting political battle is sure to spill beyond the Capital Beltway into the presidential campaign and contests for control of the House and Senate this fall.

Just as Obama's budget was dead on arrival last month with Capitol Hill Republicans, the House GOP plan is a nonstarter with Democrats controlling the Senate.