Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Even Conservative Stars Like Paul Ryan Don't Have the Political Courage to Defuse America's Debt Bomb

On Tuesday, the House Republicans released their budget. Paul Ryan's plan promises to:
  • Cuts government spending to protect hardworking taxpayers;

  • Tackles the drivers of our debt, so our troops don’t pay the price for Washington’s failure to take action;

  • Restores economic freedom and ensures a level playing field for all by putting an end to special-interest favoritism and corporate welfare;

  • Reverses the President’s policies that drive up gas prices, and instead promotes an all-of the-above strategy for unlocking American energy production to help lower costs, create jobs, and reduce dependence on foreign oil.

  • Strengthens health and retirement security by taking power away from government bureaucrats and empowering patients instead with control over their own care;

  • Reforms our broken tax code to spur job creation and economic opportunity by lowering rates, closing loopholes, and putting hardworking taxpayers ahead of special interests.
However, upon closer inspection, like most political promises, the budget promises are illusory at best. Ryan proposal only cuts federal spending by $5.3 trillion over the next decade. The budget wouldn't balance the federal budget until 2040. What is disappointing is that the budget merely tries to fix the underlying problems instead of eliminating them. As Ron Paul so aptly put it in his press release on Ryan's Budget:

“What is really disappointing is that the GOP budget assumes that the federal government should continue to do everything, or at least almost everything, it is currently doing. We will never have a balanced federal budget, low taxes, economic prosperity, and individual liberty unless Congress stops trying to run the world, run the economy, and run our lives.If Republicans really want to win in November, they will have to draw a clear distinction between themselves and Obama's disastrous agenda. And producing a budget that does not seriously address our nation's debt crisis will not distinguish them at all in the eyes of the American people.

Paul hit the nail on the head with that statement. America needs fundamental changes, not band-aids. Ryan's budget puts a piece of chewed bubblegum on a structural crack in a damn about to break. Apparently, not even "fiscal conservatives" like Ryan have taken the Greek Debt Crises to heart. Don't get me wrong, as far as Republicans go, Paul Ryan is about as good as it gets. He is a smart, articulate, man who I think has the best intentions. If he would have jumped into the Republican primary, aside from Paul, he would have been the hands down best candidate. However, that is also what is so frustrating about his budget. If Ryan is the great white hope for this country's fiscal crises, and this is the best he can do, we as a country are in deep, deep trouble.

What is even more troubling, is the fact that the left is going to their old playbook calling the Ryan budget "dangerous" saying it is: "essentially a shift of money from the middle class, seniors and lower-income Americans, disabled Americans, to the wealthiest Americans, the wealthiest among us." While it is no surprise that the Obama Administration is planning on countering the Ryan budget with class warfare, it is frightening that Obama apparently doesn't take the US debt crises seriously. His own budget proposal would raise taxes on 27% of US households, yet still increase the nation's deficits by $6.4 trillion between 2013 and 2022.


Between the two budgets, at least Paul Ryan's slows down the debt train. On the other hand, Obama insists on keeping the pedal to the metal with no thought on what his progressive agenda is doing to this country.

For a budget that makes sense, I suggest reading this budget. It is pro-growth, pro-free market, and actually attacks the debt bomb head on. However, I'm sure Dose of Sanity would disagree........

2 comments:

  1. I certainly don't disagree that we need to "cut spending". However, even though people can certainly get behind that idea - no one wants to cut individual programs.

    Most people like what the government is going if you ask them about specific programs. Try reforming Medicare and Medicaid by popular vote - would never happen.

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  2. So, your answer, and apparently the Obama administration's, is to continue down the path we are on? We have a glaring example of what that road leads to happening all over Europe right now. Is that really what you and the left want? Is that how important having a European cradle to the grave society is to the left? Its actually worth risking a sovereign debt crises over?

    I haven't heard one credible economist say that America's current spending/debt trajectory is sustainable. Quit the opposite. As Paul correctly points out, we will never have a balanced budget without cutting government programs. Medicare and Social Security are scheduled to explode of the coming years as the baby boomers hit retirement. Those programs are unsustainable.

    Tough decisions have to be made. The case has to be made to the American people. Enough pandering and lying.

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