House prepares to vote on $6 trillion spending-cut plan

WASHINGTON (AP) — A bold but politically risky plan to cut trillions of dollars from the federal budget is coming to a House vote, with insurgent Republicans rallying behind the idea of fundamentally reshaping the government's role in health care for the elderly and the poor.

The GOP plan, expected to be voted on later today, promises more than $6 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade compared with the budget that President Barack Obama offered in February, relying on stiff cuts to domestic agency accounts, food stamps and the Medicaid health-care program for the poor and disabled.

But while leaving Social Security alone, the measure calls for transforming Medicare from a program in which the government directly pays medical bills into a voucher-like system that subsidizes purchases of private insurance plans.

People 55 and over would remain in the current system, but younger workers would receive subsidies that would steadily lose value over time.