The House narrowly approved Rep. Paul D. Ryan’s spending blueprint Thursday, 219-205. It’s an important symbolic victory for the Wisconsin Republican and potential GOP presidential contender.  

No Democrats voted for the 10-year-spending plan and the bill won’t go anywhere in the Senate, but the document has come to represent a marker for where the Republican Party, its leaders and rank-and-file House members stand on fiscal policy.  

Twelve Republicans defected (See who opposed the budget, and why, here ). The last time the Ryan budget passed the House, there were 10 Republicans who opposed the measure.  

Ahead of the vote, Ryan called it a “balanced budget that pays down the debt,” to loud applause from his colleagues. Ryan said the Republican plan boils down to a simple question: “Who knows better, the people or Washington?”  

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., criticized the GOP budget plan as a “road to recession.”  

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