Heck, Heller back GOP budget plan; Berkley opposed

WASHINGTON -- The two Republicans representing Nevada in the House said they are supporting a potentially politically perilous new plan to tackle the federal debt by reducing spending by $5.8 trillion over a decade and making sweeping changes in health programs for the poor and senior citizens.

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., architect of the House budget blueprint, has said the proposal is controversial but necessary, and that Republicans "are going to lead with our chin" on it.

Democrats including President Barack Obama and party members from the Nevada delegation declared their opposition when the GOP plan was unveiled Tuesday, saying it fails the fairness test and that it will lead to cuts in popular programs, including Social Security.

But Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., who is giving up a safe House seat to run for Senate, said he plans to vote for it and to campaign on it as a strategy to regain control of spending, reduce the deficit and spark economic growth.

"Most Nevadans can understand this is the direction the country needs to go," Heller said. "I don't see where we are setting ourselves up or that we are outside the lines or the bounds of where the American people want us to be."

Likewise, Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev., a freshman who plans to seek re-election in a competitive suburban Las Vegas district, also said he supports it.

"I don't see this as a risky vote," Heck said. "This is a sensible way to rein in spending, and it does that through a myriad of different approaches."

Along with spending cuts throughout the government, a budget freeze, setting top corporate and individual tax rates at 25 percent, repealing the new health care law and reducing the federal work force, the Republican budget calls for overhauling Medicare and Medicaid.

Medicare would transition from an open-ended entitlement into a program that provides voucher-style payments for recipients to buy private insurance.

Medicaid, which now is funded by states and the federal government to provide care to people with limited incomes and the disabled, would be converted into one where states would be given block grants to operate the program.

Republicans emphasized that Medicare would be untouched for anyone 55 or older. Changes would affect younger people when they turn 65 and qualify for coverage.

Heller said private insurers would compete for the business of millions of Medicare beneficiaries who would be given "premium support" payments to buy health care.

"I believe at the end of the day with competition you will have higher quality and less cost," Heller said.

On Medicaid, "governors would be given the opportunity to use their federal dollars in a way they think is best to take care of their poor and working poor medical needs without a lot of strings attached," Heck said.

While Republican governors might favor the plan, 17 Democratic governors told Ryan in a letter this week that a Medicaid block grant "would severely undercut our ability to provide health care to our residents and adequately pay providers."

While the Republican plan does not contain specific plans for Social Security, it does contain triggers that would force alterations on the program sooner or later. Democrats say the budget targets in the proposal are set so low there will be little choice but to make cuts such as raising the retirement age.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said "seniors, kids and low-income families" are going to be losers in the GOP budget.

"There's no way for me to support a budget that ends Medicare or that punishes Nevadans who count on Medicaid for children's health care or nursing home services for an elderly parent or loved one," she said. "Turning Medicare into a voucher program will leave seniors vulnerable and limit their access to the medical services and medicines they need."

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.