GOP budget plan cuts deeply into domestic programs, reshapes Medicare, Medicaid But the document - with its deep spending cuts paired with tax cuts - will provide new fodder for Democrats who will paint Republicans as willing to undermine retiree health programs, but unwilling to ask wealthy taxpayers to contribute more. The proposal, authored by Budget Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), calls for spending cuts and tax changes that would put the nation on a course to eliminate deficits by 2040. That path includes proposals to turn Medicaid spending into a block grant program and cut food stamps and other domestic programs. But it probably will not be rapid enough for many tea party conservatives, who want to eliminate deficits in a decade or less. In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Ryan argues that the plan offers "real spending discipline." It does this not through indiscriminate cuts that endanger our military, but by ending the epidemic of crony politics and government overreach that has weakened confidence in the nation's institutions and its economy. And it strengthens the safety net by returning power to the states, which are in the best position to tailor assistance to their specific populations," he writes. The non-binding budget plan will be rejected by the Democratic-controlled Senate, but it will form the basis of an election-year argument by Republicans on how to restructure government. On Medicare - a key flashpoint in a debate over Ryan's budget a year ago - Ryan once again proposes to offer seniors retiring in future years payments with which to buy private health insurance coverage. But this year, he also proposes to offer seniors a traditional fee-for-service option, a key concession made after Democrats castigated Republicans for proposing an end to traditional Medicare a year ago. Though Ryan crafted the proposal with Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), Democrats have made clear they will once again cast Republicans as eager to cut deficits by fundamentally altering the health-care program. At the same time, Ryan proposes to reshape the tax code and lower rates for nearly all individuals and businesses. The proposal would replace the current tax structure's six brackets with just two tax levels, a 10 percent marginal tax rate for lower-income earners and 25 percent for upper-income earners. That would be a reduction from the current top marginal rate of 35 percent. Republicans have been urging an overhaul that would make the tax code simpler and easier to understand while lowering rates, which they believe will spur economic growth and prove a politically potent election-year message. Ryan's proposal is similar to ones offered by both GOP presidential candidates former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. Democrats and Republicans also will clash over how much the budget proposes to spend overall for the 2013 fiscal year. Ryan proposes $1.028 trillion in spending - $19 billion less than a cap for the year imposed in the difficult summer negotiations over raising the debt ceiling. He does so while proposing to shift defense cuts that had been designed as a purposefully painful consequence for the failure of the parties to reach a grand bargain on debt reduction this fall. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who chaired the failed congressional deficit reduction supercommittee, called the move "outrageous and deeply disappointing." "By desperately attempting to appease their extreme conservative base, House Republicans are reneging on a deal their own speaker shook on less than eight months ago," she said. They have shown that a deal with them isn't worth the paper it's printed on and they are threatening families across America yet again with the prospect of a government shutdown.