Months ago many in his party were clamoring for Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to jump into the presidential race. But he knew that the job he already had as chairman of the House Budget Committee was just as critical to the nation’s future.
He once again stepped into that deepening leadership gap in Washington, D.C., the one left wide open by a president who apparently wants to turn us into Greece. And in doing so Ryan proved he has the courage and the intellectual firepower to lead the Congress and the nation to a better place.
At the heart of the new Republican budget plan is an effort to simplify the tax code for individuals … and close some loopholes — all aimed at growing the economy. No talk of class warfare here, just an effort to reduce the deficit with some sensible spending discipline.
And instead of growing the national debt as a share of gross domestic product (it currently consumes about 73 percent of the economy), gradually reducing that by about 15 percent over the next 10 years.
The Ryan plan also tackles that third rail of American politics — Medicare.
While Democrats no doubt can’t wait to run yet another commercial of a Ryan look-alike throwing some senior citizen off a cliff, the truth is that the only way to save Medicare is to change it. But courage is at a premium on Capitol Hill this year and Ryan’s plan will likely languish. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t the right path.
The Boston Herald (March 29)
Funny I didn’t see anything about dropping the tax rates to 25% for those in the top brackets. Gee I wonder what that would do to those making over say 1/2 million dollars or even $1 million do any of you think there might be a tax savings for them. Na the R’s wouldn’t do anything like that. Also they seem rather vague as to what loopholes would be closed. I am sure the rates would drop first and then they would go to work on the loopholes.
Don’t forget to know that Ryan’s plan increases Defense spending. Not only is that hypocritical and shows that he’s a phony deficit hawk, but it goes against the super committee deal showing that this group is untrustworthy in negotiations.
$4.6 trillion is the size of the mystery meat in the budget. Ryan proposes tax cuts that would cost $4.6 trillion over the next decade relative to current policy — that is, relative even to making the Bush tax cuts permanent — but claims that his plan is revenue neutral, because he would make up the revenue loss by closing loopholes. For example, he would … well, actually, he refuses to name a single example of a loophole he wants to close.So the budget is a fraud. No, it’s not “imperfect”, it’s not a bit shaky on the numbers; it’s completely based on almost $5 trillion dollars of alleged revenue that are pure fabrication.On the other side, 14 million is the minimum number of people who would lose health insurance due to Medicaid cuts — the Urban Institute, working off the very similar plan Ryan unveiled last year, puts it at between 14 and 27 million people losing Medicaid.That’s a lot of people — and a lot of suffering. And again, bear in mind that none of this would be done to reduce the deficit — it would be done to make room for those $4.6 trillion in tax cuts, and in particular a tax cut of $240,000 a year to the average member of the one percent..