New Budget Battle

[SubGod22]

House Republicans Unveil Budget Blueprint

WASHINGTON – House Republicans teed off an election-year fight with the White House and their Democratic colleagues Tuesday, unveiling a much-anticipated budget which Rep. Paul Ryan said would move America away from a "dependent culture."

Democrats immediately blasted the plan as unbalanced, and favoring corporations over Medicare recipients.

The plan reprises a controversial proposal first pitched last year which would overhaul Medicare for those currently under 55. The plan would let those beneficiaries choose from a list of plans, including the traditional fee-for-service Medicare plan as well as private plans which the government would subsidize.

"We believe competition and choices should be the way forward versus price controls that leads to rationing," Ryan, R-Wis., said at a press conference Tuesday.

[SubGod22]

Paul Ryan's Spending Plan by Cato's Chris Edwards

Here are a few highlights:

• Total federal outlays would fall from $3,624 billion this year to $3,530 billion next year. Those figures are $24 billion less than under President Obama’s budget this year and $187 billion next year.
• Of the $187 billion savings compared to Obama next year, $38 billion would come from discretionary programs, $146 billion from so-called entitlements, and $3 billion from interest costs.
• Ryan’s proposed spending in 2022 of $4,888 billion would be a modest 13 percent less than Obama’s proposed spending that year. That’s a useful statistic to remember when you read the inevitable stories about how Ryan would slash, burn, and pillage the government safety net.
• Indeed, Ryan’s proposed increase in federal spending from $3,624 billion this year to $4,888 by 2022 represents fairly robust annual average growth of three percent.
• As a share of GDP, the Ryan budget would trim outlays from 23.4 percent this year to 19.8 percent by 2022. That reduction would simply get spending back to around the normal historical level. And note that spending would still be higher than the 18.2 percent achieved in the last two years under President Clinton.
• Ryan would repeal the 2010 health care law and reform Medicare by transitioning to a consumer-choice model. Those changes are expected to reduce annual outlays in 2022 by $258 billion.
• Perhaps a more important proposal is the block-granting of Medicaid and other entitlement programs such as food stamps. Those Ryan reforms would save $313 billion annually by 2022.
• Converting entitlements to block grants would allow the federal government to clamp down on federal costs while giving the states strong incentives to improve program efficiency.
• The Ryan budget does not propose Social Security reform. Paul Ryan favors major reforms to this program, but he apparently thinks that reforming health care and other entitlements is a higher priority right now.
• Aside from a few obvious targets—such as high-speed rail and the 2010 health care law—the Ryan budget shies away from abolishing specific programs, agencies, and departments.
• Too often the Ryan budget proposes to fix broken programs when the proper reform would be elimination. Ryan proposes to “consolidate” federal job-training programs, for example, but these programs have a history of failure over the last five decades. Furthermore, job training is not a proper federal role within the U.S. constitutional structure.

[Wu du Nord]

This is pretty simple.

1. Paul Ryan is not a smart man. He's a pawn.

2. Pushing the (absurdist) Ryan agenda in a serious manner will most assuredly usher in another Obama term.

3. Should we start a countdown timer for your well rehearsed whiny victim routine, or do you have plans to man up in the near future?

4. If you want to say something. Say it. Quoting wide spread and freely available accounts are hardly interesting fodder for message boards... unless your message board isn't on the internet....

[DUShock]

This stunt, though the outcome (no deficit) is well intentioned, reflects poorly on party leadership control over the caucus. The leadership made an agreement and the budget as presented by Ryan fails to conform with last year's agreement.

[SubGod22]

I agree. But I also believe last years aggreement sucked a big one and does nothing good for the future of this country.

[Maggie]

This stunt, though the outcome (no deficit) is well intentioned, reflects poorly on party leadership control over the caucus. The leadership made an agreement and the budget as presented by Ryan fails to conform with last year's agreement.

I don’t believe calling a budget proposal from Congress a stunt is fair characterization given the fact that it is something the House of Representatives is supposed to do. You could argue that Ryan is attempting, through the budget, to drive political conversation in a certain direction – but that is what politicians are, in part, paid to do. In any event, I would rather have a member of Congress doing what Ryan is doing than holding meaningless hearings on NFL “headhunting” and the like.

With regard to “breaking” an agreement the leadership made, I don’t think that is quite right either – assuming you are referring to the debt-ceiling deal and the supercommittee (e.g. defense cuts, etc.)

[Wu du Nord]

I agree. But I also believe last years aggreement sucked a big one and does nothing good for the future of this country.

Can't even spell agreement.

Ladies and gentlemen, your 2012 conservative base voter!

Sorry, I thought I'd outgrown tee-ball, but I guess not. Cheers!