Posted on 03/14/2013 5:20:48 AM PDT by Kaslin
Yesterday, Paul Ryan, Republican Chairman of the House Budget Committee, unveiled his plan that would balance the federal budget within one decade. Considering that the nation’s debt (not including the huge future cost of major entitlement programs) is now approaching $17 trillion, one might think political leaders in Washington, D.C. would consider such a proposal. On the Democratic side of the aisle, however, there is no interest whatsoever in taking such a constructive approach.
Democrats in both houses of the Congress and the Obama Administration, along with many media-based pundits, began to loudly criticize the Ryan proposal even before it was presented. They whine that it is soft on some details and that it -- Heaven forbid -- focuses on spending cuts as the preferred way tobalance the budget rather than revenue enhancements (also known as “tax increases”).
Instead of wailing and gnashing of fiscal teeth, Congress and the President ought to be heaving a sigh of relief and heaping kudos on the former vice-presidential nominee, for doing what they collectively and separately have failed to accomplish. The young Congressman from Wisconsin actually put together a thoughtful, substantive and comprehensive budget. But, of course, Washington does not operate with the same logical, problem-solving approach as a business; according to which a proposal would be viewed as a starting point from which to construct a final solution.
In the deeply partisan environment prevailing today in our nation’s capital, a real plan such as Ryan’s is savaged by the other party for every manner of reason; with no effort to, or interest in, working toward an ultimate solution.
Opponents howl that Ryan’s plan slashes government spending so deeply it would -- if enacted -- essentially doom America to a lengthy and massive depression. Yet, if viewed for what it actually is -- a budget providing for a rate of increase in federal spending at a historically healthy 3.4 percent -- the plan envisions robust federal outlays more than sufficient to avoid economic calamity. Indeed, rather than a miserly budget plan causing America’s children to languish in bread lines, Ryan’s budget proposes federal spending of $41 trillion over the next decade -- hardly a draconian approach to budgeting.
Fundamentally, Ryan’s budget recognizes the reality President Obama and his Democratic colleagues in the Congress absolutely refuse to acknowledge: We do have a spending problem. It then proposes what is to the Democrats, unthinkable: reducing spending rather than increasing taxes. The Democrats’ blind and absolute adherence to a philosophy of addressing the budget deficit by seeking ways to increase revenues (“taxes”) thus leads Obama’s Party to refuse to even consider Ryan’s proposal as a collection of ideas from which to negotiate; to them, it is seen as nothing more than an infected bed sheet during the Black Plague -- something to be burned and buried.
Some among the chattering class have been quick to reject the Ryan proposal because it does not address in detail every aspect of the federal budget morass that has given us $1.0 trillion-plus deficits every year in which this president has been in office. Of course, had Ryan’s initial plan, as unveiled yesterday, included every detail of an overhaul of our current income tax and entitlement systems -- systems Rube Goldberg would be proud to claim as his own -- the congressman’s detractors would have scoffed that the plan was “too complex” to work.
Central, of course, to the Democrats’ knee-jerk rejection of the Ryan plan is that it contemplates and incorporates an approach to healthcare reform fully at odds with the sacred cow that is “ObamaCare.” This alone dooms the plan to the graveyard into which that political party throws any proposal founded on the notion of individual choice rather than government mandate.
Hopefully, Republicans in the Congress -- including the leadership -- will run with the Ryan Plan. It is worthy of adoption not because every member and every faction within the GOP agrees with its every element; rather, the plan should be employed as a visible and strong framework with which to construct for the American people a workable, balanced federal budget within a realistic timeframe that also incorporates vital reforms of the myriad government programs that have been permitted to grow uncontrollably and led us to the brink of fiscal collapse.
Paul Ryan has teed up a worthy proposal; let’s now see if the GOP hits it down the fairway or whiffs it.
He is not proposing a serious plan. This is just another smoke screen to cover the real CR they just passed, and the VAWA they just passed.
Ryan rehashes his 2011 and 2012 ‘went no-where’ plans, but it now includes Obama medicare ‘death panel’ cuts and his tax increases to 'cut the deficit' faster than prior versions, and Dems make fun of it once again and we are supposed to react to that once again like dogs to a dog whistle.
Given that this like the other versions is DOA anyway why doesnt Ryan come up with a real proposal that changes Medicare starting now, or say 2014, instead of his silly ‘wait 11 year’ gimmick that fools no one??
Socialists understand perfectly that their philosophy of governing has failed horribly throughout history in every instance it was tried. These vaunted geniuses, however, are brighter, smarter and more sophisticated than all their predecessors. They are bound to succeed where all others have failed.
What is obvious to those unblinded by the brilliance of these saviors is that they are baseline dumb. They have no wit, no candor, no intelligence and nt even a glimmer of ethics.
The well honed patina of liberal piety is wearing thin. They have mired us in a failing economy and forced upon us us a withering cultural flower that are plainly unsistainable. They are, of course, cowards.
We will hear louder screams and more bitter wailing and the grinding of gnashing teeth as truly enlightened leaders such as Paul Ryan put us on the road to recovery. The new Pope said it best when he described these enemies of decency as followers of the Father of Liars.
Hmmm...Kind’a the way Conservatives sounded when the Obamacare monstrosity was rolled out!
That arrogant pos occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave doesn't even want to cut the national debt one dime. Instead he wants to raise the debt limit, so he and the liberals can keep on spending like drunken sailors. And you bitch about because he wants to balance the budget within a decade? Newsflash to you, the liberals don't want to balance the budget at all. Did you miss that?
I bitch because any plan that says delay all spending cuts to a specific program until 10+ years after it is passed is a joke and is not the least bit brave, nor does it make sense.
RE :”That arrogant pos occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave doesn't even want to cut the national debt one dime. “
Obama is not my Gold standard to judge GOP plans against.
Besides these are rehashed 2011 and 2012 plans which if you didnt notice Ryan ran on against Obama in last years POTUS election, and Obama is still in the WH. So whatever Ryan was up to DIDNT WORK@!
Because they went nowhere does not mean they were not worthy. Only that they endangered the RAT hegemony to such a degree that they, like Sarah Palin, must be destroyed!
It doesn't reduce spending. It reduces the growth in spending. There's a difference.
The Ryan Bill is the best bet we have. Now we need to rally all conservatives, all right thinking Americans to push it through. Obama will veto, that’s a given, but then push for override - tough - but worth the effort.
10 year plan = BS!
One Congress can not bind another.
Congressman Paul Ryan?
You mean the guy who will appear with the Congressman Luis Gutierrez in Chicago at a Luncheon who’s sole purpose is to Open the borders to illegal aliens when 25 Million Americans are out of work?
That Paul Ryan?
Forget it. Any sane person would not want to share the stage with Luis Gutierrez! Traitor extraordinaire!
http://www.facebook.com/events/423106984440267/
https://www.cityclub-chicago.org/events/event_registration/event_info.asp?event_id=837
It is indeed the best that we have. I am not so sure if he will veto it. Remember that arrogant pos says a lot without saying anything, but we must make sure that we get the Senate back in 2014 and that he will not get the House which he wants
We’ll hear all about it when Stephanopoulos sits Ryan down for one of his one-on-one interviews. /s
Oh wait, he doesn’t plan on balancing his sitdown with the president? Really? /s
The Repubs need to jump on this and publicize it, even if they have to buy TV time.
There were major flaws in his Medicare pitch in 2011 but the argument then was that delaying ALL Medicare cuts for at least 10 years would make it popular, regardless of how dumb that idea is.
Well it didnt work in that goal, it was rejected from the start. So that leaves the rehashed 2011/2012 plan with zero purpose. More here :
Who?? Wasnt that some FNC babe who worked for Greta?
Don't bother including me on your future ping lists. I do not associate with brain-dead "principled conservatives". You and your ilk are the creeps that kept the RATS from being swept into the dust bin of history back in the late 90s.
You skipped the part where I pointed out that Ryan pitched this same idea twice before 2011 and 2012 and convinced no-one.
Even if it wasnt a great idea but it worked in hurting Dems idea I would score it some credit. But this one has been a lose-lose from the start
My ideal GOP is Scott Walker. He takes on Dems, lures them in traps, beats them in submission then wins the next election, and #1 is he GETS results.
This tripling down on loss completely turns me off.
One Congress can not bind another.
ding ding ding...
that is the FIRST indicator that this *plan* is nothing but politi-gimmick designed to do nothing but appease the masses...
beyond that, most of the details in the *plan* are riddled with similar illogic to actually doing anything to reverse the pattern of drunken-sailor spending, and pillaging of the citizenry by both sides, that we now see...
you want me to cheerlead for a politician, let that *representative* actually do something like "represent" me...IOW, live within yer means and pay off the credit cards...
impossible you say without some *growth* in the {COUGH !!!] *budget* means its a non-starter and unrealistic from the gitgo...
both sides are in a race to buy the most votes with my great-granchildrens labor...
cant and wont happen...
On FNS Ryan told Wallace that passing a bill that STARTS cutting, or saving, Medicare in 10 years (not before) will in itself jump-start the economy now because, get this, the bond market will respond positively right now.
????? Current Bond Market??? Interest rates are zero.
Once again I am getting lectured to the effect that I must act like this makes sense, to hurt Obama. It didnt work the other two times but if we just play act it will work this time for sure.
Ryan tried his ridiculus aruments (’bond markets’) in the 2012 campaign, lets triple down on failure.
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