Washington (CNN) -- The struggle to control America's skyrocketing debt took center stage in the House of Representatives on Thursday as members approved a fiscal year 2011 budget deal reached last week by President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
The measure, which also is expected to be taken up by the Senate Thursday, passed the Republican-controlled chamber in a 260-167 vote. The bill would not have passed without support from members of both parties.
Fifty-nine Republicans voted no on the measure -- raising questions about Boehner's ability to keep his conservative Tea Party-infused caucus unified in the face of politically perilous tax and spending negotiations with the Democrats.
The vote also reflected growing liberal angst and anger over the impending spending reductions. Only 81 Democrats backed the measure; House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, voted no.
Under the deal, $38.5 billion would be from the budget for the remainder the fiscal year, which ends September 30. Among other things, the package slashes funding from a wide range of domestic programs and services, including high-speed rail, emergency first responders, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
As part of the agreement, Congress is also scheduled to vote Thursday on measures to de-fund Planned Parenthood and Obama's health care overhaul. While the bills are expected to pass the House, they have virtually no chance of clearing the Democratic-controlled Senate.
One point of concern for conservatives was a report released Wednesday by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office showing that of the $38.5 billion in savings, only $352 million will actually be realized this fiscal year. Boehner insisted Thursday that all of the cuts will take effect eventually, but conceded that the analysis "has caused some confusion" among House members.
"There are some who claim that the spending cuts in this bill ... are gimmicks," he said on the House floor. "I just think it is total nonsense. A cut is a cut."
Freshman Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Illinois, told CNN that the uproar "certainly doesn't help (Boehner's) case."
Walsh said he would oppose the bill. "I'm disappointed," he said. "I just think we could have gotten more."
Regardless, the measure is expected to clear Congress one day before the federal government's current spending authorization expires. Negotiators narrowly avoided a partial government shutdown last week by agreeing to the deal and passing a short-term spending measure to give Congress time to review the agreement.
"No matter how we may disagree between parties, no matter how much we spend time debating the issues, at some point we're going to have to come together as Americans," Obama said Thursday morning.
Obama made his remarks during a meeting with former Sen. Alan Simpson, a Wyoming Republican, and former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles, the co-chairs of his deficit reduction commission.
As Congress moves ahead with the deal, however, attention is already turning to larger battles over the fiscal year 2012 budget and a looming fight over the need to raise the nation's debt ceiling. Democrats and Republicans have radically different ideas on how best to confront the country's fiscal woes, and are being pulled away from each other by their respective political bases.
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, laid out the GOP's vision last week when he unveiled his 2012 fiscal blueprint. The congressman says his plan would cut projected deficits by roughly $4.4 trillion over the next decade. It calls for significant changes to Medicare and Medicaid -- two hugely popular entitlement programs. It also would overhaul key portions of the tax code, dropping the top rate for individuals and businesses to 25% while eliminating a number of loopholes.
Under Ryan's plan, Washington would eventually stop directly paying bills for senior citizens enrolled in Medicare. Instead, recipients would choose a plan from a list of private providers, which the federal government would subsidize.
Medicaid, which provides health care for the disabled and the poor, would be transformed into a series of block grants to the states. Republicans believe state governments would spend the money more efficiently and would benefit from increased flexibility, while Democrats warn that such a move would shred the health care security provided to the most vulnerable Americans in recent generations.
The House is expected to pass Ryan's plan Friday. Senate Democrats, however, are certain to block the measure.
Obama's budget plan, outlined in a speech delivered by the president Wednesday, aims to cut deficits by a combined $4 trillion over the next 12 years without significantly changing Medicare and Medicaid.
The president's plan includes a repeal of the Bush-era tax cuts on families making more than $250,000 annually -- something sought by Democrats but strongly opposed by Republicans. Obama also called for the creation of a "debt fail-safe" trigger that would impose automatic across-the-board spending cuts and tax changes in coming years if annual deficits are on track to exceed 2.8% of the nation's gross domestic product.
The president claimed that by building on or adjusting the health care reform bill passed last year, $480 billion would be saved by 2023, followed by an additional $1 trillion in the following decade. He proposed tightly constraining the growth in Medicare costs starting in 2018.
The rhetoric over the two leaders' respective plans has become increasingly heated in recent days.
Obama slammed Ryan's proposal Wednesday, declaring that, as president, he will "not allow Medicare to become a voucher program that leaves seniors at the mercy of the insurance industry."
The president asserted that the Republican "vision is less about reducing the deficit than it is about changing the basic social compact in America."
Ryan responded Thursday by ripping Obama for using "demagogic terms and comparisons."
The president's plan is "fundamentally unserious," Ryan said. Obama has brought himself "down to the level of the partisan mosh pit" and made it tougher for the two parties to reach an agreement, he said.
Republicans have repeatedly indicated an unwillingness to consider tax hikes as part of any deal.
Against that backdrop, Democrats and Republicans also have to contend with an impending vote to raise the nation's debt ceiling. Congress needs to raise the limit before the federal government reaches its legal borrowing limit of $14.29 trillion later this year or risk a default that could result in a crashing dollar and spiraling interest rates, among other things.
GOP leaders have stressed that any vote to raise the cap has to be tied to another round of spending cuts or fiscal reforms.
The administration, in contrast, has called for a "clean" vote on the cap, which would raise the limit without adding any conditions. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney has warned that trying to force the issue would be tantamount to playing a game of "chicken" with the economy.
