Thank You, Paul Ryan!
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House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan unveiled the House leadership proposal for the 2012 budget calling for reduction in Federal spending and entitlements of $6.2 trillion over ten years. Compare that to the Obama Administration’s proposal to cut spending $1.1 trillion over the same period and you begin to see the stark contrast of views that will not only frame the debate ahead but the 2012 election as well.
Democrats are already lining up with every special interest sacred cow to call these cuts in spending draconian and accusing Republicans of sending grandma to the poor house so millionaires can keep tax breaks.
Congressman Ryan seems to understand what many others are still in denial about. The US Government faces a red ink problem that is profound and staggering. The excuse of the recession to continue spending at unsustainable rates is wearing thin. And the American people chose a mid-course correction in the last election to restore a sense of balance and proportion to our budget and our national policies.
Ryan and the house leadership had no choice but to propose a budget and lay out policy options that give the people what they want, even if they must give it to them hard. The question is whether this proposal will be seen as a serious program of reform and recovery or political grandstanding to create an issue for the next election.
We will know the answer to that question soon enough. But we do know this—Paul Ryan has done more to help restore America’s financial strength in this one action that anyone else in the last five years across both administrations.
By forcing America to look into the mirror and speak truth about our fiscal and policy realities we unleash the best in America—common sense, air play, and optimism about the future that has made us the greatest nation on earth.
There is one more truth we all know—-no serious budget or reform proposal can evade a serious discussion of the unsustainable realities of health care costs including Medicare. An entitlement is worthless if the nation is bankrupt. Piling on more unsustainable costs will not solve the problem only competition among service providers across state lines, choices among benefit levels rather than government mandates, an end to automatic increases regardless of cost, and restoring the basic soundness of our economy so that more revenue flows into the government treasury will turn things around.
So thank you, Paul Ryan, for framing the debate and the decisions ahead in terms that are practical, realistic to our needs, and honest.
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- GOP’s Ryan Prepares Medicare ‘Premium Assistance,’ Medicaid Block Grants In Budget Proposal (kaiserhealthnews.org)
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The 2012 Budget War
We have met the enemy and it is us!
Representative Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee is releasing the 2012 House Republican’s budget proposal this week. Depending upon which side of the aisle you sit this will be either the best thing since canned beer or a disaster of untold proportions.
Scrape away the hyperbole and the choice for America boils down to business as usual with continued high levels of deficit spending or serious decisions to scale back that spending and bend the deficit curve back down to flat over time.
It our gut we know the answer to the question we are being asked. We can’t keep going on like this. Something must change to get our fiscal house in order and put America back on the road to prosperity instead of racing toward the cliff.
This stark choice will frame the 2012 elections as well as the budget. The Daily Beast put it this way:
“Are we still a nation born of personal liberty, opportunity, and self-reliance? Or have we been transformed into a nation controlled by government arrogance, debt, and dependence?
Consider this: More Americans work for the government than work in construction, farming, fishing, forestry, manufacturing, mining, and utilities—combined.
The number of Americans who pay taxes continues to shrink, and we are nearing the point at which half will not pay taxes for the benefits they receive.
The national debt will total $15.476 trillion by Sept. 30, or 102 percent of the sum total of all economic activity in the nation.
Payroll tax revenue will fall $45 billion short of Social Security benefits owed this year, and the Social Security trust fund will be fully exhausted in 2037.”
Let’s Go!
