Democrats close to 2010 U.S. budget final passage

By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats in the U.S. Congress are steering toward passage this week a $3.4 trillion budget plan that sets the stage for a sweeping overhaul of U.S. healthcare later this year, a major priority for President Barack Obama.

The House of Representatives is expected to debate Congress' final version of a fiscal 2010 budget blueprint on Tuesday, with the Senate hoping to pass it a day later.

If they succeed, Democrats will further enhance Obama's legislative accomplishments within the first 100 days of his presidency, a period that ends on Wednesday.

But most Republicans are expected to vote against the measure, claiming it spends too much money and undermines Obama's call for bipartisanship by including a provision that would allow Democrats to fast track healthcare reform through Congress if necessary.

Obama, fighting to dig the country out of its worst financial crisis in decades, says the big spending plan is central to helping the economy. But Republicans, still smarting from their November election defeats, have sought to use it to portray Obama as a liberal big spender.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, a Democrat, called it a "good budget" but warned that "much more will have to be done to get us on a sustainable course." He was referring to containing spiraling costs of federal retirement and healthcare programs for the poor and elderly.

Representative Paul Ryan, the senior Republican on the House Budget Committee, called the fiscal blueprint "the most irresponsible budget I've ever seen" with its deficits that will total hundreds of billions of dollars each year.

The budget is non-binding, but it provides guidelines for upcoming tax and spending bills Congress could consider.