So what was the Ryan Budget’s radical departure from the status quo that has caused such uproar? If enacted today, the Ryan budget would so drastically upend the fiscal picture that the U.S. federal budget would come into balance in just… wait for it…. 27 years!
Sort of an eye-opening article.
I get really tired of this smoke-and-mirrors, bait-and-switch game that we get played by.
A rino is a rino is a rino.
To know them is to love them. /sarc
the Ryan budget doesn’t actually cut anything. At no point in Ryan’s decades long budget timeline does he ever suggest that the government spend less than it had the year before. He doesn’t touch a penny in current Social Security or Medicare outlays, nor in the bloated defense budget. His apocalypse inducing departure comes from trying to limit the rate of increase in federal spending to “just” 3.1% annually. This is below the 4.3% rate of increase that is currently baked into the budget, and farther below what we would likely see if Obama’s priorities were adopted
27 Years? They were able to accomplish this easily in the 90’s....somehow in 2000 the Republicans went on a major spending spree and it has not stopped since.
I could balance the budget in 3 years. Sell off or lease the majority of public lands. Make welfare, food stamps and section 8 available only to those who cannot work for valid reasons, and then, only those who’re unlikely to return to work for at least 2 years. All others will receive job training and work search classes, only. Those will receive commodity foods and food bank donations, only. Reincorporate the Air Force back into the Army and the Coast Guard into the Navy. Place the Army Airborne into the Marine Corps. Combine all special forces into one organization that will be uniformely highly trained. Cut federal employee pay and benefits by 25% and tie increases to the cost-of-living index, with a 5 year moritorium of now increases. Cut every agency budget and employee wise by 20% with further downgrades to follow a bi-partisan study, similar to the base closings. Make the federal agencies justify their not leasing land to mining and energy companies. Abolish the EPA and OSHA. Etc, etc..
It is a nasty shell game they’ve been playing. Cutting spending increases and calling it a real cut; trying to out-Democrat the Democrats by adding more giveaways and centralizing government, and calling it “streamlining” or “greater efficiency.” The truth is, the government is bankrupt now. It has been for some time- the illusion of solvency is maintained by the Federal Reserve- and selling junk bonds to the Chicoms won’t hide it forever. We’ve already gone over the fiscal cliff- it is just that nobody has bothered to look down yet.
The Ryan budget is not extreme at all. It is well designed and well thought out to address the major issues...first, changing the tax structure to promote stronger growth, and to deal with the two biggest budget busters...Medicare and Medicaid. It does that without rocking the boat or affecting anyone in retirement or retiring in the next decade. It is a reform bill meant to be appealing to a majority of voters. It is excellent work, and effective politically, and should be implemented.
It does not deal with cutting departments or radically changing other functions. Those are different battles to have, for sure, and ones we need to have, but we could cut three departments and hardly make a dent in the big ticket problems looming in entitlement spending.
The Obama/Biden campaign promises “Hope and Chains”.
Just the idea that politicians are beginning to take seriously the idea that we need to start reining in entitlements will bring changes in the future. Ryan is facing it squarely, and he’s taking the heat for it. Thats OK, he can handle it.