Tuesday, April 5, 2011

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan as Slayer of Big Goverment?

Congressman Paul Ryan is out with his budget plan. Mainstream media will portray him as a big government slasher for this proposal. He is nothing close

Ryan's "radical" budget would only reduce government spending to 20% of GDP by 2015. Obama wants to cut it to 23%. It is currently at 25%. In other words, there's only a 3 percentage point difference between Ryan's proposal and that of wild spending Democrats. And, this of course is before all the Congressional horse trading that goes on that would surely boost spending levels.

It makes no sense spending the time to look at this proposal in exacting detail. It's government as usual, with plenty of room for favors tucked in for friends and mostly for those who buy themselves Congressional "friendship". If this proposal is even adopted by Congress as a blueprint to start with, the damn thing will only get much worse and will look  nothing like its current form, and its pretty bad in this form.

That said, Scott Hodge, president of the Koch-funded, Tax Foundation, thinks the plan is the greatest thing since the ending of the Vietnam War. Says Hodge:
Today, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan released his budget plan for 2012 and beyond. Unlike the typical Congressional budget resolution, the Ryan plan is not only comprehensive in its scope but it is presented in a refreshingly transparent manner. Every proposal in this nearly 75-page document – from discretionary spending and Medicaid, to taxes and welfare spending – is explained and justified in a way that any taxpayer can understand.
A more sober assessment comes from a Washington D.C. insider familiar with Congressional budgets. He emails me to say:

Ryan's plan does not touch the Empire.

9 comments:

  1. The Republicans owe their control of the house to the tea parties, whose energy and outrage pushed Republicans over the top in 2010. This is a slap in the face to those voters, and Paul Ryan is a joke. He voted for TARP and the bailouts of GM and Chrysler. The notion that he had a come-to-Jesus moment and now exhibits fiscal restraint is hilarious. These people made John Boehner the speaker, who was the legislative force in the House for No Child Left Behind. Federalism is dead, and these RINOs killed it. I can't wait for 2012, when I fully expect the tea parties to clean the Republican party's clock.

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  2. It's funny that so many Republicans have chosen to focus on this non-cutting budget as the greatest budget proposal they've ever seen to rollback government, while they completely ignore Rand Paul's proposed budget that actually makes significant cuts.

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  3. Great. So every two years the Tea Party will vacillate between the party of big government (Republicans) or bigger government (Democrats). Last I counted, amongst the 535 members of the Congress, only two seek smaller government and they both have the same last name.

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  4. I forgot he voted for the bailout. Yeah, if he wants to cut spending, maybe he should have started THERE.

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  5. Any cutting that doesn't slash the defense budget to the bone is a joke. End the wars, shutter all the overseas bases, draw down the infantry, and mothball the aircraft carriers. Then shut down the CIA and NSA. And that's just for starters.

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  6. He also voted for the Medicare Drug Plan.

    He's a fraud.

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  7. I appreciate the criticism of Paul Ryan, I do. He voted for a lot of questionable legislation and can be rightfully called out on it. But, on the one hand you've got a guy who seems interested in addressing budget issues. On the other hand, you have the Democrats who kick and scream at the very thought of it.

    Rand Paul's budget idea is grand and all, but this is the sort of effort that requires baby steps. Progressives have long understood the merit of incrementalism. We need to appreciate every scrap, seize upon it, and then demand more.

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  8. is there a link to Ron Paul's 75 page plan that we can read?

    please post - thanks.

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  9. Mr. Ryan taxes for the wealthy people and wealthy corporations IS THE ANSWER!!! stopping the loop hole TAX breaks the wealthy people and corporation use to get away with paying their fair share IS THE ANSWER!!! Taxing companies that send our jobs overseas IS THE ANSWER!!! Put an excise tax on all transactions in the stock exchange IS THE ANSWER!!! What is NOT the answer is to burden the middle class and the poor with your "I love the rich and will do anything to protect them because they line my pocket" solution.

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