House votes to approve Ryan budget

WASHINGTON, April 10 (UPI) -- The House approved a budget Thursday that claims it would balance the budget by cutting $5.1 trillion over a decade and repealing the Affordable Care Act while boosting defense spending.

The measure, which was opposed by every Democrat and 12 Republicans, passed 219-205, just a single vote over the minimum needed for passage. The Republican no votes came from Conservative members who said cuts didn't go far enough.

"What this budget comes down to is a matter of trust," said House Budget Committee Paul Ryan, who authored the budget. "Who knows better: the people or Washington? We have made our choice with this budget."

Ryan's budget, like his previous efforts, stands no chance of actually becoming law. But it is intended by Republicans to act as a blueprint for how the party would govern if it took control of the Senate and White House, and Democrats are all too happy to run with that message.

"By supporting the GOP’s reckless ‘Koch Budget,’ GOP Senate candidates are jeopardizing economic security and health care rights for women while providing tax giveaways for millionaires," the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said in a statement, released shortly after the budget vote Thursday. "Republican Senate candidates are sending a message loud and clear to women of their states that: if elected to the Senate, they will put special interests like Koch brothers first, not women and middle class families.”

Democrats are putting women front and center as they rev up for the 2014, hoping they can paint their opponents as out of touch with the needs of half the population.

Indeed, according to the Women's Law Center, cuts to programs proposed in Ryan's budget hit women especially hard: It would cut $732 billion from Medicaid (nearly 70 percent of adults on Medicaid are women), as well as slashing funds from food stamps (63 percent of recipients are women) and Pell Grants (62 percent of recipients are women).