Ryan: American People Are Way Ahead of Us

Paul Ryan

Politico - Ahead of the release of his full proposal later Tuesday, House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan is touting his 2012 budget and an estimated $6.2 trillion in cuts over the next decade as a “path to prosperity” for a country he says is in danger of decline. With a government shutdown looming as a distinct possibility by the end of the week, Ryan’s sights are set on the longer term, warning in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Monday night that fiscal catastrophe will result without real action. Ryan also released a three-minute video “visualization” of his proposal, with graphics illustrating the abstract proposals he’s talking about. “America is facing a defining moment,” he writes. “The threat posed by our monumental debt will damage our country in profound ways, unless we act.” Discretionary spending cuts, entitlement reform, tax reform and caps on spending are all part of the equation that Ryan is releasing on behalf of House Republicans.

Spending for domestic government agencies would be cut back to 2008 levels, Ryan writes, and frozen at that level for five years. Ryan does not propose sweeping defense cuts, but his proposal does include “accepting Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s plan to target inefficiencies at the Pentagon,” he writes. A Government Accountability Office audit found $70 billion in waste at the Pentagon in the last two years. Ryan’s budget also “forces” reforms to Social Security and Medicare. “The open-ended, blank-check nature of the Medicare subsidy threatens the solvency of this critical program and creates inexcusable levels of waste. This budget takes action where others have ducked,” he writes, proposing that beginning in 2022, beneficiaries will get the same kind of health care coverage that members of Congress receive. Read full sty here: News New Mexico

Ryan: American People Are Way Ahead of Us