House Republican budget overhauls Medicare and repeals the health law

House Republicans called it streamlining, empowering states or "achieving sustainability." They couched deep spending reductions in any number of gauzy euphemisms. What they would not do on Tuesday was call their budget plan, which slashes spending by $5.5 trillion over 10 years, a "cut." The 10-year blueprint for taxes and spending they formally unveiled would balance the federal budget, even promising a surplus by 2024, but only with the sort of sleights of hand that Republicans have so often derided. The budget — the first since Republicans regained control of Congress this year —largely reflects the four previous versions written by Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin when he was chairman of the Budget Committee.