Republicans offer "alternative" "budget"Follow

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on Thursday laughed off the Republican's proposal, joking that their blueprint has more pictures of windmills than charts.

"It's interesting to have a budget that doesn't contain any numbers. I think the 'party of no' has become the 'party of no new ideas,' " he said at the daily briefing.

Democratic strategist and CNN political contributor Paul Begala reiterated that idea, saying Republicans weren't doing anything productive.

"Now the Republicans have what we Texans call the chutzpah to criticize Obama for doing too much," Begala wrote in a commentary for CNN.com.

I'm not kidding -- the only actual hard numbers in the plan are to limit taxes on those making over $100k to 25%.

It reads like this:

1. Call Obama's plan too spendy.
2. Think up idealistic alternatives.
3. Make a pretty chart.
4. ???
5. BUDGET!

Except they skipped steps 2, 3, and 5. And added in a bunch of old talking points.

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) raised objections to an abbreviated alternative budget "blueprint" released today -- but were told by House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) they needed to back the plan, according to several Republican sources.

The argument, coming a week before the full House and Senate are scheduled to vote on the budget, underscores the minority party's woes in a mounting unified opposition to President Obama's $3.6 trillion FY2010 budget proposal.

Ryan, the ranking Republican on the budget committee, plans to introduce a detailed substitute amendment for the Democrats' spending plan next Wednesday -- and still intends to do so.

But he and Cantor were reportedly told by Boehner and Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) they needed to move more quickly to counter Democrats' charge they were becoming the "Party of No," according to House GOP staffers.

The 19-page document, prepared by Pence's office, was distributed two days after President Obama criticized Republicans for trashing his detail-crammed 142-page budget outline without producing a credible alternative.

“In his egocentric rush to get on camera, Mike Pence threw the rest of the Conference under the bus, specifically Paul Ryan, whose staff has been working night and day for weeks to develop a substantive budget plan," said a GOP aide heavily involved in budget strategy.

"I hope his camera time was gratifying enough to justify erasing the weeks of hard work by dozens of Republicans to put forth serious ideas," the person added.

Fivethirtyeight.com offered this plan: