The Hill News

A top Democrat said Friday he expects almost all, if not all, Democrats to oppose the 2012 GOP budget when it comes up for a vote in the House.

Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), the fourth-ranking Democrat who serves as caucus chairman, expected a strong vote against the fiscal plan offered on the floor today by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the chairman of the House Budget Committee.

"I don't," Larson said on MSNBC, when asked if he expected any Democrats to break ranks and back the GOP plan. "You never can tell, of course, but I think there will be near unanimity, if not unanimity."

Votes are expected Friday on a series of budget proposals, and Ryan's plan is expected to be the one to pass.

Democrats, led by President Obama, have spent a great deal of energy castigating Ryan's plan this week. At a private fundraiser last night, audio of which was posted Friday by CBS News, the president took Ryan and Republicans to task, saying the budget panel chairman's plan was "not on the level."

"When Paul Ryan says his priority is to make sure, he's just being America's accountant," Obama told supporters. "This is the same guy that voted for two wars that were unpaid for, voted for the Bush tax cuts that were unpaid for, voted for the prescription drug bill that cost as much as my healthcare bill â€" but wasn't paid for."

Of course, the strong rhetoric against the plan is no guarantee Democrats won't break ranks on the budget; 108 House Democrats joined Republicans to back th! e 2011 spending agreement backed both by House Speaker John Bo! ehner (R -Ohio) and Obama in a vote on Thursday.

Larson downplayed that vote, saying that the president "had a gun to his head" during negotiations with Boehner. 

"Whether it was back in December with the Bush tax cuts being made permanent, we understand that the president had a gun to his head," he said. "But that's what was going on. And same thing now."

But on the Ryan budget, Larson said there is no daylight between House Democrats and the White House.

"There's never unanimity in the Democratic caucus, but there is great unity and we stand behind our president and never more so than on Wednesday when he drew a line in the sand on the most important issue we are going to face, and that's the ending of Medicare as we know it," he said.