Government

‘Let’s Not Wait Until We Have a Crisis’: Paul Ryan Pleads for Fiscal Reform in Budget Debate

WASHINGTON (AP/The Blaze) — The House took up a stringent GOP budget plan Wednesday that blends big cuts to safety-net programs for the poor with a plan to dramatically overhaul Medicare, kicking off a politically-charged, election-year debate over trillion-dollar deficits and what to do about them.

The debate quickly split along partisan lines, with Republicans shunning tax increases on the wealthy called for by President Barack Obama, while Democrats resisted curbs on federal health care spending and further cuts to domestic programs. An alternative based on Obama’s 2010 deficit commission promised to bring at least a glimmer of bipartisanship to the floor but was expected to fall victim Wednesday night to GOP opposition to tax hikes and Democratic resistance to further cuts to domestic programs.

The main focus, though, is on the budget-slashing GOP plan by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., which would quickly bring the deficit to heel but only through unprecedented cuts to programs for the poor like food stamps, Medicaid, college aid and housing subsidies. The Republican budget also reprises a controversial Medicare plan that would switch the program — for those under 55 today — from the traditional framework in which the government pays doctor and hospital bills to a voucher-like approach in which the government subsidizes purchases of health insurance.

The GOP plan is set to pass on Thursday, but swiftly die in the Democratic Senate. Under the arcane budget rules of Congress, the annual budget resolution is a sweeping but nonbinding measure that sets the parameters for follow-up legislation.

The measure reopens last summer’s hard-fought budget and debt deal with Obama, imposing new cuts on domestic agencies while easing cost curbs on the Pentagon that won bipartisan support just months ago. It would set in motion follow-up legislation that would substitute $261 billion in spending cuts spaced over a decade for $78 billion in automatic spending cuts that would cut the Pentagon budget by about 10 percent next year and cut numerous domestic programs as well.

The election-year GOP manifesto paints clear campaign differences with Obama, whose February budget submission offered tax increases on the wealthy but mostly left alone key benefit programs like Medicare, Medicaid and food stamps. Obama and his Democratic allies instead promise to protect programs aimed at the elderly and the poor.

Ryan said the GOP plan steps in aggressively to prevent a European-style debt crisis that would swamp the economy and force draconian spending cuts and tax increases.

“Let’s not wait until we have a crisis. Let‘s not wait until interest rates go up and we’re in sort of a European meltdown mode,” Ryan said. “Let’s do it right and do it now, because then we can keep the promises that government has made to people who need it the most.”

But Democrats said the Ryan plan makes spending cuts that are simply too draconian, knocking millions of people off of food stamps and forcing states to drop Medicaid nursing home coverage for many elderly people. At the same time, Democrats said the GOP budget promises a radical overhaul of the tax code that would deliver big tax cuts to upper-income people while taking away tax deductions and credits important to the middle class and the poor, like the child tax credit, and deductions of health insurance, mortgage interest and contributions to charity.

Democrats say the GOP Medicare proposal, similar to a plan that started a political firestorm last year, would cut costs steeply and provide the elderly with a steadily shrinking menu of options and higher out-of-pocket costs.

“It is not bold, not bold to provide tax breaks to millionaires while ending the Medicare guarantee for seniors and sticking them with the bill for rising health care costs,” said top Budget Committee Democrat Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. “It is certainly not brave to cut support for seniors in nursing homes, individuals with disabilities, and poor kids. And it is not fair to raise taxes on middle-income Americans, financed by another round of tax breaks for the very wealthy.”

Compared to President Obama’s budget, the GOP measure includes deficit cuts totaling $3.3 trillion — spending cuts of $5.3 trillion tempered by $2 trillion in lower taxes — over the coming decade. The deficit in 2015, for example, would drop to about $300 billion from $1.2 trillion for the current budget year. But the GOP measure — despite assumptions of unrealistic cuts to transportation, education and food aid — doesn’t achieve balance for almost three decades, leading conservatives to offer an even tougher plan that would come to balance in five years.

The GOP measure is likely to pass almost exclusively with GOP votes, though some tea party lawmakers will oppose it for not going far enough.

Wednesday night will feature a closely-watched vote on a bipartisan alternative that would cut the deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years with a mix of new tax revenues and spending cuts across the federal budget.

The proposal by Reps. Steve LaTourette, R-Ohio, and Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., is modeled after a much-praised plan by the co-chairmen of Obama’s 2010 deficit-reduction commission.

The bipartisan measure calls for $1.2 trillion in tax increases over the coming decade, less than the $2 trillion-plus in revenue increases called for by former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles, a Democrat, and former GOP Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming, the co-chairmen of Obama’s deficit commission.

The bipartisan Simpson-Bowles plan won a majority vote in Obama’s 18-member deficit panel, though it fell short of the supermajority 14-vote tally required to win the commission’s official endorsement. But the plan won the votes of conservatives like Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and liberals like Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., which was seen as a moral victory.

But the Simpson-Bowles plan, hatched in the wake of the Democrats’ drubbing in the 2010 midterm elections, received a chilly reception from the White House and leaders of both parties, and that’s unlikely to change Wednesday.

“Unfortunately, the proposal fails to confront the key driver of the debt: the explosive growth of government spending on health care,” said House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis. For starters, the LaTourette-Cooper plan would leave in place Obama’s health care overhaul law.

Wednesday’s bipartisan plan was unlikely to win much Democratic support either, in part because it cuts domestic programs below Simpson-Bowles levels and imposes stiffer curbs on health care programs.

From a technical perspective, the measure leaves Social Security alone. But it contains a policy statement endorsing the Simpson-Bowles plan, which called for raising the retirement age and reducing annual cost-of-living increases.

“It has real entitlement reform and real revenues,” Cooper said in an interview. “And those are two essential elements of any viable budget. It’s shared sacrifice. Everyone is asked to help make our country stronger, and that‘s why it’s bipartisan.”

But it’s those curbs on so-called entitlement programs — which include Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security — that seem likely to limit Democratic support, just as most Republicans will recoil from the measure’s proposed tax increases.

The measure, like the Simpson-Bowles plan, calls for a tax overhaul that would bring the top tax rate down from 35 percent to 29 percent or lower, financed by repealing various tax breaks, deductions and credits. Overall revenue would rise, since the revenue raised by eliminating dozens of tax breaks would exceed the revenue lost by lowering rates. Some supporters of revamping taxes say revenues would be even higher because it would spur economic growth.

Comments (46)

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  • SHOWMESTATEGUY
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 10:44pm

    It will not happen as long as the dem libs are in the picture. They have proved with their actions they are willing to run this nation into the ground. The dem libs can’t even pass a budget!!!!

    The dem libs can tell you what you are going to do, tell you whats good for you, tax you to death and spend the country into bankruptcy. That is what the dem lib party will do for you. What can Brown do for you? Destory everything this country was once worth fighting for.

    Report Post »  
    • resme
      Posted on March 29, 2012 at 2:15am

      Tell ryan to take notes from rand paul.

      Report Post » resme  
    • Bum thrower
      Posted on March 29, 2012 at 8:51am

      eliminate DOD; out source defense to China; see if the libs will vote for that one.

      Bet they would…..

      Report Post »  
  • vorpal
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 10:33pm

    As long as the senate is held by progressives there will be no budget remedy because the progressives don’t want a remedy

    Report Post » vorpal  
  • moussiagilda
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 10:18pm

    You want me to write something else about him? Well I’m hardly going to, because he‘s not the only man I’m obsessed with, but he‘s the only man I’m obsessed with who will be President. Will, will, will. In 2012. Nag, cajole, implore. You can’t possibly stay home when your country needs you, and only you, sugar, honey.

    Now stop looking so freaking nervous and desperate in public, sir, and prepare to accept the nomination in the brokered convention. Regain your sanity and equilibrium, sir, and be our historical savior. You have to. Don’t be a boob. Be a President.

    Report Post »  
  • skathesoul
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 9:59pm

    It‘s a moderate’s world. Rand Paul put out a REAL budget plan the week before that was ignored even by so called right wing news orgs like the Blaze. What a shame.

    MUST SEE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eZsH-00hs5g

    Report Post »  
  • soybomb315
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 9:48pm

    look at ron paul standing up to the fed yesterday

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ripsfc1H-Tc&feature=player_embedded

    Report Post » soybomb315  
  • FANGS
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 9:40pm

    The Republicans and all the top Economic Experts are supporting Ryan‘s Budget plan and All agree that Ryan’s Plan is the only sane way to save our Country from Bankrupsy. That being said, When everything Collapses the only thing left to do will be to exterminate the Democrats for Economic Treason and Economic Collapse. Never again in America Will a Democrat exist. Democrats are the #1 Sourse of all Economic Problems in America. No one else is to blame, Just Democrats.

    Report Post »  
  • soybomb315
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 8:40pm

    Even if the Paul Ryan plan passes – you know they will water it down and NEVER put the axe to these federal programs. The only way the republicans will be able to make a dent is to elect someone who doesnt give a cr@p about being re-elected…Ron Paul.

    You know in your heart he’s right

    Report Post » soybomb315  
  • TRILO
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 8:29pm

    A stringent budget plan! Are these people living in la-la land or is it just the writer of this article? So a stringent budget plan is one that still deficit spends and adds to the horrendous debt ? And pays ZERO on the existing public debt. Not to mention that it takes 28 years to balance??!!!! They have zero control over anything except the current fiscal year which is half over. Not to mention that they passed the appropriations bill that puts us on the path to spend $1+ Trillion more than we bring in.

    The republicans in the House and Senate are absolute idiots! I am done with the Republican party. I am actually starting to believe that I have been tranported to some alternate universe where the absurd is now common sense and wrong is right.

    God help us if this is the best that they can do.

    Report Post » TRILO  
  • TexOkie
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 8:25pm

    Ah, but Paul don’t you, know it wouldn’t be prudent to let a potential crisis go to waste.

    It’s all part of the plan.

    Report Post »  
  • Apple Bite
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 8:18pm

    More rhetoric from the left…kyll mi naow!!!

    Report Post » Apple Bite  
  • Mateytwo Barreett
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 7:53pm

    Lets not wait until we havre a crisis! I give up! (not really) Why Not? Buncha of freaking idiots. Are there lobotmies performed in te basement. Cesium in the water? Rat **** in the peper shakers?
    According to my calculations, we sailed right past crisis. We know chaos was in the house this moring – Whats on the other side of crisis- is it doom by another name?

    Report Post » Mateytwo Barreett  
  • BelieveMe
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 7:52pm

    ANY POLITICIAN who BEGINS with COST CUTTING with ENTITLEMENTS automatically DECLARES WAR on the POOR even if the POOR do not receive substantial cuts. FOOD STAMPS costs a FORTUNE because of how it is ADMINISTERED! The actually OUTLAYS are only 47,000,000*200*12=$112,800,000,000. That is PEANUTS compared to the ADMINSTRATION EXPENSES. ELIMINATING virtually ANY government DEPARTMENT is NOT the answer. It sounds like a great idea, but I think you will find OUR GOVERNMENT IS DESIGNED TO BE AS INEFFICIENT as humanly possible. Simply making our government more efficient is the answer. I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE ONLINE VOTING ENABLED so our representatives can truly address the issues of the people and establish a government for the people, by the people, UNDER GOD!

    Report Post » BelieveMe  
  • TeaPartyForRomney
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 7:46pm

    Paul Ryan was on Hannity last night for Sean’s “THE REAL OBAMA SPECIAL ON THE NATIONAL DEBT: http://www.thedailycandidate.com/video/2012/mar/real_obama_debt.html.

    Paul spoke on what the President is doing to fight creating a budget and trying to increase spending.

    Report Post »  
    • Brother Winston Smith
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 7:57pm

      Of course! It’s a great way for Ryan to hide HIS OWN LEFTISM:

      TARP (which ignited the Tea Party AGAINST HIM)
      Auto Bailouts
      Economic Stimulus 2008
      ADDITIONAL Economic Stimulus 2009
      Debt ceiling hikes
      Comprehensive immigration reform without amnesty (AMNESTY)
      Socialized employment (extending UC)
      Socialized education (No Child Left Behind)
      Socialized medicine (Medicare Prescription Drug “benefits”)
      Socialized housing (Section 8 vouchers)
      Head Start
      4th shattering “Patriot” Act
      NDAA
      Nation-building
      MORE nation-building
      H.R. 347 (protest ban)

      Report Post » Brother Winston Smith  
    • soybomb315
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 8:36pm

      The situation is so serious that even tea party “darlings” have big government tendancies. We need to get the feds out of everything except what is listed in the constitution and leave the rest of it to the states

      Report Post » soybomb315  
  • NOBALONEY
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 7:46pm

    The crisis is here! President Obama’s loose talk with Medvedev is as much a threat as the 5 trillion dollars added to the national debt. The media can’t be trusted to deliver the facts on important issues, because they’re too busy doing damage control for Obama, and sensationalizing agenda driven stories.

    Report Post » NOBALONEY  
  • Brother Winston Smith
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 7:05pm

    LEFTIST Paul Ryan’s Fiscal Reform:

    TARP (which ignited the Tea Party AGAINST HIM)
    Auto Bailouts
    Economic Stimulus 2008
    ADDITIONAL Economic Stimulus 2009
    Debt ceiling hikes
    Comprehensive immigration reform without amnesty (AMNESTY)
    Socialized employment (extending UC)
    Socialized education (No Child Left Behind)
    Socialized medicine (Medicare Prescription Drug “benefits”)
    Socialized housing (Section 8 vouchers)
    Head Start
    4th shattering “Patriot” Act
    NDAA
    Nation-building
    MORE nation-building
    H.R. 347 (protest ban)

    Report Post » Brother Winston Smith  
  • progressiveslayer
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 7:00pm

    The madness of Keynesian economics will destroy our republic in short order unless some sanity is restored in D.C, don’t hold your breath.Fundamental change would be using the constitution to neuter D.C stop with the unending regulations,end obama care and slash spending by the trillions immediately.

    In a perfect world our government would be void of all progressives with an R or D behind their name and replaced with people who understand the constitution acts as a chain on government to limit it’s power over us.In a perfect world that is,we are far far from that.

    Report Post » progressiveslayer  
  • MammalOne
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 6:54pm

    What delusional world do these people live in? No one is going to be happy with the revised budget. There is no question, we HAVE to cut funding to programs and more people HAVE to pay taxes. You don’t close a $1.3T with a little change here and a band-aid there. When will our politicians act like responsible adults?

    Report Post » MammalOne  
  • Chrison
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 6:46pm

    Btw, here’s something that should DEFINATELY be in every federal budget from now on…

    Nobody get a dime of “entitlement” money unless they are first paying taxes! I don‘t care if they’re paying $100 in taxes but receiving $10,000 in entitlements, so long as EVERYONE paying at least SOMETHING in taxes! It‘s absolutely NUTS that some folks don’t pay a dime in taxes but suck entitlement money like there’s no tomorrow while, at the same time, others are busting their butts working and paying horrendous taxes to support the free loaders!

    THAT is what “fairness” is all about, NOT the tax-the-rich-to-give-to-the-poor policies of the current band of thieves occupying the White House and Congress!

    Report Post »  
    • Shasta
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 7:06pm

      If people had a stake in the game, they might think more carefully. Obama does not want this, he is trying to split the country, and succeeding.

      Report Post » Shasta  
  • Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 6:41pm

    “Lets not wait until we have a crisis”

    I hate to say this but we have reached the gates of crisis mode; state level tax increases, dividend tax increases, and if they happen, Obamas massive tax increases, will push us past the point of no return. We are indeed at the crisis point now.

    We need to make the changes happen, and soon while there is still a small window of opportunity left.

    Of course I also realise that with Obstructionists in chief Obama and Reid nothing will be accepted that comes from the Republicans unless it is by the design of Reid and Obama.

    In otherwords, their way absolutly or the highway.

    Vote Obama out in Nov.

    Report Post » Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
    • ChiefGeorge
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 7:24pm

      I do not see 2012 going out quietly but epically.

      We’ve lost our center, our moral responsibility to do the right thing across the board, the compass is swiveling wildly, the rudder has got massive holes in it and directional control linkage is damaged, the bottom of the boat is laden with worthless lead who are the non-producers of our society who in another generation or two prior to this one may have been hardworking citizens. Nope! The ship of state is a fixin to run aground. I have done my duty and raised three good wholesome hardworking children, served my country and voice my values. Most Americans took pride in these things but now adults are lost in the fog of self centeredness while their parents beg them to get control of their lives and their children have no one to look up to except the state. Frankly dear, this country is rotten to the core. When it falls apart we will truly know what we’ve lost.

      Report Post » ChiefGeorge  
  • Chrison
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 6:38pm

    I’ve not studied any of the budget proposals, and probably wouldn’t understand them if I did. The bottom line, though, is that the U.S. Government is up to its eyeballs in debt, and that debt is escalating faster and faster as time goes by.

    The Government, and that includes ALL parties, needs to QUIT BS’ing people and get SERIOUS about bringing the budget into line! That does NOT mean “reducing the deficit” (i.e. “we’ll still spend more money than we have, just not as much”) but, rather, getting to a BALANCED budget!

    If that means having to cut entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security, then so be it! The Government simply CAN‘T keep spending more than it’s taking in or, someday, the country is going to face a crisis that will make the Great Depression seem like a picnic!

    The choice is simple… get the budget under control NOW, when it can be done in an orderly fashion, or do it haphazardly when America looks more like Greece (and other bankrupt European countries) and has totally lost control its economic future!

    Report Post »  
  • team1blazer
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 6:33pm

    Any plan that does not severly cut entitlement spending is nothing more than a bandaid for the cancer that is killing this country. We don NOT have a tax revenue problem; we have a SPENDING problem. Quit spending my grandkids future!

    Report Post » team1blazer  
  • mrsmileyface
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 6:30pm

    Heres the funniest part of this whole budget deal…………Wheres the Democrats budget? Almost 3 years deliquent and counting. So glad they get paid on a regular basis, Id hate to think what they would do if their pay was based on them doing thier JOB.

    Report Post » mrsmileyface  
  • CatB
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 6:28pm

    Go get them … about time someone in the Republican party showed some backbone … Paul Ryan and Rand Paul .. are the future.

    Report Post »  
    • Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 6:43pm

      CatB – one thing the article mentions, the “arcane rules” and such, should be set straight and simple to where any budget is binding; and balanced completely at that. I hope we can survive the insanity of Obama until he is out of office (assuming he does not grab final power in a coup or such), and that we can restore the nation.

      Report Post » Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
    • MAMMY_NUNN
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 7:23pm

      Paul Ryan and Rand Paul you can’t argue or debate with Democratic idiots.

      Report Post »  
  • marine249
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 6:24pm

    lets use one that as a chance to pass and work

    Report Post »  
    • db321
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 6:32pm

      Thank You Wis. for allowing America to benefit from the hard Work and intelligence of your Statesman Paul Ryan and a few other that are standing toe to toe with an extremely dangerous President Obama. God Bless Paul Ryan, God Bless Wis, and God Bless America!

      Report Post » db321  
    • team1blazer
      Posted on March 28, 2012 at 6:35pm

      Just like Greece has done for the past 20 years? Good luck with that. If we don’t STOP deficit spending NOW, this country is toast!

      Report Post » team1blazer  
    • resme
      Posted on March 29, 2012 at 2:15am

      ryan is a joke.

      Report Post » resme  
  • Baddoggy
    Posted on March 28, 2012 at 6:19pm

    Not aggressive enough. Use the budget put forth by RAND PAUL…

    Report Post » Baddoggy  
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