House Republicans unveiled an ambitious cost-cutting plan Tuesday that would balance the budget in 10 years without raising taxes, while repealing ObamaCare and overhauling entitlements -- a document Democrats are sure to reject but could be used as a negotiating tool in talks with President Obama.

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., chairman of the House Budget Committee, is sticking by controversial proposals, including one to give future Medicare retirees the option of using government payments for private health care plans.

The plan warns of a looming debt crisis, and endeavors to pay off the debt by 2050.

"We are addressing the most predictable debt crisis in this country's history," Ryan said Tuesday. "Our plan will balance the budget and pay off our debts."

In response, the White House issued a statement complaining that the plan does not include tax increases for top earners and said the president believes it is the "wrong course for America"...

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Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney made the following statement Thursday following the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the constitutionality of the Obama administration's health care law.

"As you might imagine, I disagree with the Supreme Court's decision and I agree with the dissent. What the court did not do on its last day in session, I will do on my first day if elected president of the United States. And that is I will act to repeal ObamaCare.

Let's make clear that we understand what the court did and did not do. What the court did today was say that ObamaCare does not violate the Constitution. What they did not do was say that ObamaCare is good law or that it's good policy. ObamaCare was bad policy yesterday. It's bad policy today. ObamaCare was bad law yesterday. It's bad law today.

Let me tell you why I say that. ObamaCare raises taxes on the American people by approximately $500 billion.

Michael Cannon, director of healthy policy studies at the Cato Institute, says the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) is a panel of 15 unelected government officials with the power to change Medicare policy, raise taxes, impose conditions on federal funds to states, and even appropriate money without congressional authorization.

"Once this board issues one of its proposals, ObamaCare requires the secretary of Health and Human Services to enact that proposal, unless Congress either strikes it down or offers a substitute," Cannon detailed in a recent podcast.

Striking down a proposal would require a three-fifths vote of the Senate.

"In essence, what ObamaCare gives to this unelected board of government officials is the power to write laws," the expert summarizes...

WASHINGTON – Republicans have pushed an election-year $3.5 trillion budget through a divided House that showcases their plans for trimming federal deficits and contrasts sharply with how President Barack Obama and Democrats would tackle the nation's fiscal problems.

The GOP package would revamp Medicare, slice everything from food stamps to transportation and reject Obama's call for higher taxes on the rich. It envisions collapsing the six different income tax rates into just two, with a top rate of 25 percent compared with today's 35 percent. It would also eliminate unspecified tax breaks...

The claim that House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget would end Medicare is the “lie of the year,” according to the fact-checking website Politifact.

According to Politifact’s analysis, saying the Ryan plan “ends Medicare” overlooks the fact that its changes would not affect people 55 and older. Politifact also said Medicare would remain in existence, but in a different form — which Ryan’s critics say is the same thing as ending Medicare.

Democrats and liberals slammed the decision and stood by the contention that Ryan’s proposal would end Medicare.

“It seems foolish to have to parse the meaning of the word ‘end,’ but if there’s a program, and it’s replaced with a different program, proponents brought an end to the original program,” liberal blogger Steve Benen wrote at Washington Monthly.

WASHINGTON – The House has passed a $1 trillion-plus catchall budget bill paying for day-to-day operations of 10 Cabinet departments and averting a government shutdown, while Senate talks on renewing a payroll tax cut and jobless benefits reached a critical phase.

The 296-121 vote to approve the spending measure represented a rare moment of bipartisanship in a polarized Capitol. The Senate's top Republican, meanwhile, raised the stakes in the showdown over the payroll tax cut, insisting he won't back a compromise extension unless the bill includes language aimed at forcing construction of a Canada-to-Texas pipeline.

Republicans claimed enough support to push legislation through the House on Tuesday that would continue a payroll tax cut for 160 million workers, a vote that would shift the battleground to a staunchly opposed Senate.

House GOP lawmakers emerged from a closed-door meeting Tuesday morning expressing confidence and daring President Barack Obama and the Democratic-led Senate to oppose them at a time when the economy remains on its knees. The roughly $180 billion bill would also extend unemployment benefits and prevent deep cuts in Medicare payments to doctors.

"You can't be for the middle class" and oppose the tax cuts and job creation the bill contains, said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va.

"Mr. President, we can't wait," Cantor said.

Donald Berwick, the rationing advocate President Barack Obama nominated to head the U.S. Medicare and Medicaid programs in the face of opposition from pro-life advocates, has quite his post in the Obama administration.

Because he is unable to get enough votes in the Senate to approve his nomination, his recess appointment will end and Berwick has decided to stop down from his position as the chief implementor of Obamacare, the health care law pro-life groups opposed because its prompts concerns about abortion funding, rationing, and fails to protect the conscience rights of medical workers.

Senate Republicans had blocked Berwick’s confirmation as chief of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

WASHINGTON – House Speaker John Boehner publicly blessed a Republican deficit-reduction plan Tuesday that would raise $300 billion in additional tax revenue while overhauling the IRS code, bucking opposition by some GOP presidential hopefuls and colleagues wary of violating a longstanding point of party orthodoxy.

Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, spoke as time grew perilously short for agreement by the deficit-fighting "Super Committee." The panel has until a week from Wednesday to vote on any compromise, but several officials said that in reality, perhaps as little as 48 or 72 hours are available to the six Republicans and six Democrats.

While Boehner's voice is important, his endorsement does not mean all Republicans will follow him or that a deal is in sight.

Capitol Hill Republicans say the GOP members of a deficit "Super Committee" are showing flexibility on revenue hikes as the panel heads closer to its Thanksgiving deadline.

GOP aides said Tuesday that among the options floated by Republicans is one that would place limits on the total amount of tax deductions and credits that individuals could claim, in exchange for lower income tax rates. The tradeoff could net hundreds of billions of dollars for the Treasury over the coming decade.

The idea, discussed by Pennsylvania GOP Sen. Pat Toomey in talks with Montana Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, is but one of many options on the table.