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Ryan Budget Fails In Senate Vote

Ryan Faughnder |
May 25, 2011 | 3:46 p.m. PDT

Senior News Editor

The Republican plan to balance the federal budget was struck down in the Senate Wednesday. The final vote was 40-57. The budget included a plan that would have dramatically changed parts of Medicare, the popular and expensive health care entitlement program for seniors. The plan would have put health insurance of seniors in the hands of private companies, effectively beginning a phase-out of the program. 

Rep. Paul Ryan
Rep. Paul Ryan

Five Republicans voted against the proposed plan, known as the Ryan budget after Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, its chief architect. Pundits claimed the defections from the Republican party line were a result of the increasing unpopularity of the Medicare provisions. 

Talking Points Memo called the Republican moves to change Medicare a "buzzsaw" and wrote that, while the vote illustrates a political backlash against the Ryan measures, significantly altering Medicare remains the consensus goal of the right.

While Republican leadership voted in favor of the bill, the did not push their fellow GOP members to fall in line because of the political liability such a position was likely to become, according to The Hill. Besides, given the partisan split in the Senate, it would have been virtually impossible to secure the 51 votes needed to move the plan forward.

This comes less than a day after an upset Democratic victory in New York's decidedly conservative 26th district. Some pundits and analysts called Kathy Hochul's victory in the special election a referendum against the Ryan budget. The discussion has so far mirrored the media reaction to the election of Scott Brown to the Senate in January 2010. Brown was one of the Republicans who voted against the Ryan budget. 

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