House majority leader Tom DeLay, a Texas Republican, said it is time to look closely at benefit programs that are ''popular but rife with waste."
''These entitlement programs deserve reform," he said. ''The Medicaid system is antiquated and the quality of care is not being brought to the people that need it."
The budget sketches out plans and priorities for spending $2.6 trillion in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, projecting a federal deficit of $383 billion. Lawmakers use the blueprint to pass specific tax and spending legislation later in the year.
After the House vote, President Bush praised the budget resolution. ''This is a responsible budget that reins in spending to limits not seen in years," he said in a written statement.
Democrats renounced the proposed cuts.
''This budget is a missed opportunity because instead of being a blueprint of positive initiatives for the future, this budget is an assault on our values," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California said.
Republicans said the plan to shrink federal spending only nicks rapidly growing benefit programs, which will continue growing but at a slightly slower rate.
Democrats expressed skepticism about GOP promises and questioned the budget's projections of shrinking deficits.
''This budget says the lives of poor mothers and poor children are not that important after all," said Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts. ''Under this budget, tax breaks for the rich are more important than life itself."
The budget would shave automatically increasing benefit programs by $35 billion over five years while also cutting taxes by as much as $106 billion over the same period.
Medicaid gets marked for a $10 billion reduction over four years. The changes in Medicaid wouldn't begin until 2007, giving a specially convened commission and the nation's governors time to recommend cost-saving proposals.
Without any change, the Congressional Budget Office expects the federal government to spend $191 billion on Medicaid next year and more than $1.1 trillion over the five years covered by the budget.
Senator Gordon Smith, an Oregon Republican who held GOP leaders in protracted negotiations over the size of Medicaid reductions, ultimately backed the plan.
Smith said he's working with the White House to assemble an advisory panel to recommend one round of changes by Sept. 1 and issue a final report for comprehensive restructuring in December 2006.
In addition to planned reductions in projected Medicaid spending, it directs lawmakers to cull about $3 billion from agriculture programs and as much as $6.6 billion from federal pension programs, including higher fees paid by employers.
Republicans emphasized that the budget would put the government on a course of cutting the deficit in half, from $521 billion in fiscal 2004 to $254 billion in fiscal 2008.
The budget directs lawmakers to prepare their legislation for tax cuts and deficit-reducing changes by Sept. 16, to be completed with an item paving the way for increasing the legal limits on the national debt.
