Posted on 12/02/2010 10:26:25 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, an influential member of President Barack Obama’s deficit-reduction panel, says he won’t vote for the panel’s recommendations–but praised the proposed package of cuts and tax reforms as a good start.
Speaking to reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast, the future chairman of the House Budget Committee said the bipartisan panel failed to tackle the health-care challenge. “It not only didn’t address the elephant in the room–health care–it expanded it.”
But Mr. Ryan did heap praise on the overall package, saying it has advanced discussions and highlighted changes on the taxes and budget front that Republicans hope to promote when they take over the House.
“Plans are advancing, adult conversations are occurring,” he said, calling those movements alone as proof of the panel’s “success.”
Mr. Ryan, who put forward his own deficit-reduction plan early this year, said it is still possible the proposals will get 14 votes needed to advance them to Congress. The deficit panel has 18 members, including 12 members of Congress.
Still, he said there was little chance the panel’s full plan will ever be taken up, even in the next Congress.
Mr. Ryan singled out two Democrats on the panel–former Clinton White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles and former Clinton budget director Alice Rivlin–as “my two favorite Democrats.” He said he hopes to keep working with Ms. Rivlin to tackle the growing federal debt.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...
In other news :
Coburn, Crapo say yes to debt commission plan
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/12/02/5566988-coburn-crapo-say-yes-to-debt-commission-plan
I heard last night that 85% of what they came up with was going to find it’s weay into the Appropriations bills.
He’s right, it IS a good start...and I’m thankful to both sides for having the conversation. Let the thing move our of the panel as is. It will surely get dissected later but at least get it out of committee. It was nice to see people working together like adults for a change. If only for a short while.
RE: I heard last night that 85% of what they came up with was going to find it’s weay into the Appropriations bills.
Will the 85% include dropping the corporate tax rate from the second highest in the world at 35% to 23% ?
Will we now have a top marginal tax rate of 23%?
Say that three times fast...
I thought it was a surprisingly good start.
Much more is needed, however.
“I think it goes backwards,” Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican and the next chairman of the House
Budget Committee, said at a breakfast with reporters sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor.
“I think it makes health care dramatically worse. And look, I’m trying to be guarded in my comments because I really respect what [commission co-chairs] Erskine [Bowles] and Alan [Simpson] have done. They should be commended. But they didn’t deal with health care.”
Ryan’s comments are the most unconditional rebuke of a plan that has been regarded even by conservatives on the commission as fairly conservative because of its recommendations on cutting spending in some parts of the budget, and on reform of Social Security and the tax system so that rates can be dramatically lowered.
So, Cong Ryan opposes this plan based on not addressing healthcare spending, aka.ObamaCare. Yet conservative Senator’s Coburn and Crapo support it.
Hmmm.
Does make one ask the question — when push comes to shove, who truly shows his conservative colors...
The fact that the strongest opposition to these recommendations is coming from organized labor (see the AFL-CIO opposition and the SEIU protests over this) makes me think a lot of these recommendations are worth a good hard look.
Ryan is looking at the election results from Nov2nd where voters said they want Congress to keep current tax rates in place, start to reduce overall spending and repeal ObamaCare.
Coburn and Crapo are giving Obamacare a pass. Not good.
I like it except the gas tax increase.
I could possibly even deal with that were it OUR oil we were drilling for and taxing AND it had a sunset provision.
I think raising the retirement age to 69 by 2075 is too little, too late.
Fair point, but we have to expect there will have to be some pain, or there will be no real progress made. Re-arranged the deck chairs on the Titanic won’t help.
Something to keep in mind here is that there's a whole other side to this equation that's part of the plan, too. In addition to raising the retirement age, there's no question that the U.S. government will be reducing Social Security outlays by reducing cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) -- either directly, as stated in this commission's recommendations, or indirectly, by artificially understating the inflation rate every year as they've been doing for the last couple of years.
“Still, he(RYAN) said there was little chance the panel’s full plan will ever be taken up, even in the next Congress.”
1. FREEZE CURRENT SPENDING LEVELS, No more baseline budget increases.
2. Reduce Federal welfa...er uh workforce by 10%(Except Military)
3. Utilize our vast energy resourcs(GAS, Coal, and OIL) and become an energy exporter. Create jobs and generate revenue.
My biggest fear is whatever new money is raise will be re-spent on new entitlements rather than applied to debt.
It’s our history.
I wonder why they don’t convert federal public sector pensions from defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans.
Of course,AARP already came out against this “draconian” suggestion.
All their plan does is rearrange the deck chairs. You are right, I voted for them to take a machete to government not a pair of tweezers.
Thanks for that info. One more reason for me to think that these recommendations probably have a lot more things to like than dislike.
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