Next up: New round of budget battles; Medicare, Medicaid spending debates

Democrats and Republicans are bracing for the next round of confrontations over federal spending, which will include issues involving the future of entitlement programs as well as the debt ceiling.

Los Angeles Times: Budget Rivals Look To Future Of Medicare, Medicaid
As Capitol Hill negotiators fleshed out details of last week's epic budget deal, Democrats and Republicans prepared for the next set of confrontations over federal spending, including the future of Medicare and Medicaid (Mascaro, 4/11).

NPR: Congress Readies For More Budget Battles
As both sides sort out who won and who lost in the deal to keep the government running, the next phase of budget wrangling ensues. The current year budget deal struck Friday night still needs full congressional approval this week. President Obama will deliver a speech on Wednesday on the budget and the long-range deficits. And sometime during the week, the House is expected to approve a new budget plan for next year that includes big changes in Medicare and Medicaid. And none of that is to mention the looming battle about raising the federal debt ceiling (Gonyea, 4/11).

USA Today: Future Battles Loom After Budget Deal
Potential Republican presidential contenders this weekend took a wide range of positions on the deal that prevented the near-shutdown of the federal government Friday, but nearly all warned of bigger budget battles in the near future (Kucinich, 4/10).

The Associated Press: GOP Gets Its Turn On Medicare Hot Seat
Now it's their turn to try to fix the health care mess. Republicans, just like President Barack Obama, may discover that's easier said than done. The GOP budget expected to go to the full House this week would remake health care programs for the elderly and the poor that have been in place for nearly half a century. Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., says his approach would "save" Medicare by keeping the financially troubled program affordable for federal taxpayers. But it turns out that people now 54 and younger would pay the price (Alonso-Zaldivar, 4/11).

MSNBC: (Video) Ryan defends plan for fundamental Medicare redesign
House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan, R- Wis., defended his plan to redesign the federal government's health insurance plans, Medicare and Medicaid, on NBC's Meet the Press Sunday, saying it was necessary to avert a sovereign debt crisis (Curry, 4/10).