Ryan’s budget

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) released his budget blueprint on Tuesday, and it was anything but boring.

Republican presidential candidates praised it, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) called it “draconian” and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) lauded its author’s “courage.”

{mosads}It does not call for major reform of Social Security, which President Obama’s bipartisan fiscal commission demanded. But unlike that plan, Ryan’s proposal tackles Obama’s healthcare reform law head-on, zeroing in on Medicare and Medicaid.

Ryan’s proposal would cut $5.8 trillion over 10 years, but still it would not bring the budget into balance for 20 years. That — a “draconian” measure that nevertheless takes a generation to straighten things out — is a measure of how far the nation’s finances have sunk. President Obama said Tuesday that the budget would have to give everyone a “haircut” and the political parties committed to cutting the record deficit.

Yet the House GOP’s budget is not going anywhere in the Senate. It is a marker, and Ryan knows it. The 41-year-old lawmaker already says he is willing to negotiate with Democrats, making it plain that the release of his plan is the beginning of a long debate about the 2012 budget, not a fait accompli. 

Obama did not call for entitlement reform in his 2012 budget request, attracting criticism from Ryan and other GOP lawmakers. Yet the president did not rule out sweeping changes, either, and he might have to embrace at least part of Ryan’s plan to get a bipartisan deal to raise the federal debt ceiling before the government runs out of money in mid-May.

Ryan is a rising star in his party. He is mentioned as a future governor, senator and president. But he also represents a district that Obama won in 2008 and is now a huge Democratic target. He is not considered electorally vulnerable, but it’s worth noting that Republicans defeated then-Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt (D-S.C.) last November.

The bottom line is that Ryan’s budget poses a risk for the new House GOP majority, as well as to his own political future. But Republicans claim it’s worth it because something must be done to save the nation’s finances and its citizens’ beleaguered entitlement programs. 

In the upper chamber, a bipartisan group of six senators is working to introduce legislation that would mirror the fiscal commission’s plan. Social Security reform is essential for some Republicans, including Sen. Tom Coburn (Okla.), who is a member of the so-called Gang of Six.

Last year, the Congress did not pass a budget, and really didn’t even try to clear one. In 2011, the differences between the parties could be too vast for a grand bargain. But at least this year, the budget debate is a robust one, and both Democrats and Republicans have publicly and privately said they are going to try to come to an agreement.