The plan to fix America's budget mess tabled by top Republicans in the House of Representatives is meant to embarrass Barack Obama by purporting to tackle a problem the President has been too timid to address.
It could instead cost the GOP its House majority in 2012, saddle the party's presidential nominee with an unsaleable policy and make Mr. Obama shine by comparison as the reasonable choice for most voters next year.
By proposing drastic changes to the costliest social programs in a plan unveiled on Tuesday, House budget chairman Paul Ryan has taken his party down a path that reinforces impressions that it favours wealthy interests over the middle-class and the poor.
It is an image Democrats are only too eager to exploit. Chris Van Hollen, the ranking Democrat on the budget committee dismissed the Ryan plan as "a rigid ideological agenda that extends tax cuts to the rich and powerful at the expense of the rest of America."
Mr. Ryan, the wonkish 41-year-old Wisconsin congressman leading the GOP initiative, is no doubt sincere in his desire to put his country on a sustainable fiscal track. But the central features of his plan - reductions in spending on Medicare and Medicaid coupled with tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations - has Democrats charging the proposals are less about deficit reduction than eviscerating the federal government.
Mr. Obama, who did even not broach Medicare reform in his 2012 budget proposal, has remained on the sidelines as Congress bickers over a budget bill for the remaining six months of the 2011 fiscal year that cuts tens of billions of dollars in current spending.
But with a government shutdown looming as early as Friday, the President insinuated himself directly into the debate by summoning top congressional leaders from both parties to the White House on Tuesday.
"The only question is whether politics or ideology are going to get in the way of preventing a government shutdown," Mr. Obama told reporters after the meeting. "What we can't do is have a 'my way or the highway' approach to this problem."
The President refused to comment directly on Mr. Ryan's proposal, insisting that resolving the 2011 budget impasse remains his first priority. "We'll have time to have a long discussion about next year's budget … And there are going to be very sharply contrasting visions."
Mr. Obama has come in for harsh criticism from all sides for failing to take the lead in tackling the country's long-term fiscal quandary. Spending on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are set to overwhelm the budget in the coming decade, and many analysts predict the country is headed for a Greece-like fiscal crisis unless it moves soon to recast those programs.
Enter Mr. Ryan. "We believe we have a moral responsibility to step in and provide the leadership the president has not been providing," he insisted in rolling out his Path to Prosperity 2012 budget plan on Tuesday.
Under the plan, federal outlays would be $5.8-trillion (U.S.) lower over the next decade relative to current estimates. His proposal would cut the deficit by just $1.65-trillion, though, since tax cuts would deprive the federal treasury of almost $4.2-trillion over 10 years.
The most controversial part of the Ryan plan involves transforming Medicare from a government-run health insurance plan for seniors into a program that subsidizes retirees to buy insurance from private providers. It could leave U.S. seniors paying more out of pocket for their health coverage.
Mr. Ryan also proposes dramatic reforms to Medicaid, the jointly-funded health plan for the poorest Americans. Spending on Medicaid is set to explode under Mr. Obama's health-care reform law, which vastly expands benefits and eligibility under the plan. The Ryan proposal would scrap ObamaCare, and instead envisions providing federal block grants to the states to spend as they see fit on health care for the poor.
All in, the Ryan budget would slash $2.2-trillion from federal health spending by 2021.
Mr. Ryan's proposals will go nowhere as long as Mr. Obama is in the White House and Democrats control the Senate. They will, however, frame debate during the 2012 election campaign. Every GOP candidate will be forced to defend them.
It sounds like a political suicide mission. While Americans profess to consider debt reduction a top priority, polls also show that about three-quarters of them are against any cuts in Medicare benefits.
Republicans "see at least a rhetorical advantage in this. They are positioning themselves as the party that's trying to save the ship," offered Alan Borsuk, a senior fellow at the Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee. "Mr. Ryan is really good with the message. He's got this image of being young, bright and committed to the issues. He's very marketable."
He's is also uncommonly, perhaps fatefully, brave.
Konrad Yakabuski