The House passed Rep. Paul Ryan's "Path to Prosperity" budget Thursday along party lines. Republicans lost ten members, but Ryan was happy with the outcome telling Fox News Host Greta Van Susteren, "We had an extremely good vote count, very unanimous, you know party consensus, I would say."

Without a single Democratic vote in the House, the bill is doomed in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Party leaders believe it presents a stark contrast between the two parties in a pivotal election year.

The president's budget was brought to the floor Wednesday night by the Republicans to show how few votes the budget might get. A tactic last employed in 2000 with President Clinton's budget, Democrats cried foul and accused the GOP of forcing the vote as a political stunt. Ryan disagrees that it was just a stunt because it illustrated the difference between the two parties.

"Let's give the country a choice. Let's have a vote on the various visions of government for the country, the president's budget which he's given and the Republican vision. Now, we've shown -- we weren't planning on voting for it, but I thought surely some Democrats might vote for the president's budget, and none of them wanted to vote for it." (read more)

Republicans are going to work off the budget the House GOP passed last year to come up with its proposals for the next fiscal year budget, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said Sunday, adding that the GOP is "not backing off of any of our ideas, any of our solutions."

Ryan, R-Wis., speaking on "Fox News Sunday," said the budget isn't written yet, and won't be ready until March, when bean counters have the "base line," or current budget figures used as the template for budgeting.

"I and my members of the Budget Committee will write this budget in March and then we're going to bring it to the floor. We think we owe the country actual solutions based upon our founding principles to get this country on the right track," Ryan said.

The budget passed by the GOP last year called for $5.8 trillion in spending cuts by 2021, eliminating $800 billion in tax increases by repealing President Obama's health care plan, eliminating deductions on tax returns while setting a top tax rate both for individuals and businesses of 25 percent and reforming entitlements like Medicare.  It passed the GOP-led House, but died in the Democratic-led Senate. (read more)

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan is unfazed by opponents who use CBO numbers to attack his budget proposal.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and other Democrats have argued Ryan's plan would ask seniors to pay more for their benefits -- charging every senior $6,000 more every year -- in exchange for fewer benefits.

"What that [CBO] analysis forgot to include was the extra $7,800 a year that go to lower income seniors to cover all of their out of pocket costs. They're measuring any Medicare reform plan like ours against a mythical future, a fiscal fantasy, which is a collapsing system," Rep. Ryan (R-Wisc.) emphatically told Bret Baier Thursday evening.

"They literally forgot to put that in the analysis," he added. (read more)

Most Republicans say if the nation doesn't cut deficit spending, the country is headed for disaster. But some Democratic leaders say it's the other way around, and the disaster will come if spending is cut.

The debate heated up this week when House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan announced that for the rest of this year he hopes to cut non-security spending by $32 billion compared to current spending levels.

Some Democrats ridicule the number, because it is lower than Republicans had hoped to trim.

Republicans responded by saying the budget year will be almost half over by the time they can implement cuts, so reductions cover fewer months of spending. And they exempt defense, homeland security and entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare.

In addition, Democratic leaders warned Republicans this week not to shut down the government over spending, but no Republican leaders are arguing for that. (read more)