What did anyone really expect from a Randian
"economist" ?
This latest garbage by way of an economic plan is
guaranteed
to anger and outrage seniors, viz 50+ million
voters, guaranteed
to alienate low income voters who were trending
Republican this year,
and give the Democrats all the ammunition they need
to ague a
convincing case before the public this Fall.
Republicans never learn, they are incapable of
learning.
As the adage has it, Republicans have a real knack
for
snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Another election down the drain it what it now
looks like.
And for what ? And why ? The answer to both is
the same,
the triumph of half baked Libertarian" "ideas"
among the Republican
leadership. It isn't just that RC is in direct
competition with Libertarians
for the hearts and minds of Independents, it is
that Libertarianism
is a formula for disaster generally.
This is stupid beyond belief.
My honest opinion
Billy
===============================================
Ryan
introduces GOP budget plan, slashing social
programs and tax rates
By Lori Montgomery and Rosalind
S. Helderman, March 20, 21012
Washington Post
House
Republicans renewed their commitment Tuesday
to the politically risky
strategy of targeting Medicare and
other popular social programs to tame the
national debt, unveiling a $3.5 trillion spending
plan that would also slash the top tax
rate paid by corporations and the wealthy.
The GOP blueprint, authored by House Budget
Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.),
is designed to draw a sharp contrast with
President Obama heading into the November
election in the ideological battle over
taxes and spending. But the plan also renews
a narrower fight over agency budgets that
has tied the Capitol in knots since
Republicans took control of the House last
year.
Bowing to demands from conservatives influenced by
the tea party movement, House leaders are pressing
to protect the Pentagon in 2013 while cutting
budgets for domestic agencies below levels set
during last summer’s showdown over the federal
debt ceiling. The decision has alarmed both
Democrats and some GOP moderates, who said the move
could spark a fresh clash over the annual bills
needed to keep the government running into the new
fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.
If that dispute is not resolved, Democrats warned
that the government — or significant parts of it
— could shut down five weeks before the election.
On Tuesday, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio)
defended the decision to set agency budgets
$19 billion lower than the cap established last
year.
“People have limits on credit cards. That
doesn’t mean that you’re required to spend up to
the limit,†Boehner told reporters. “It just
says you can’t spend any more than that.â€
Democrats immediately accused the GOP of reneging
on the hard-fought deal, which both parties had
hoped would get them through the Nov. 6 election
without additional drama. In the Senate, Budget
Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) filed a
motion to permit spending bills to be drafted at the
higher level — which, he noted, “everyone agreed
to just last year.â€
“House Republicans, I hope, would do the same,â€
Conrad said. “If they fail to do so, they will
once again threaten to shut down the government and
needlessly imperil the economic recovery.â€
It was not clear, however, that Boehner could
deliver on last summer’s agreement even if he
wanted to. Centrist Republicans responsible for
writing the annual spending bills openly fretted
about being squeezed between the demands of the
Senate and the demands of their own right wing,
where the $19 billion cut is widely viewed as too
timid.
“I don’t know how we get our work done,†said
Rep. Steven C. LaTourette (R-Ohio), who allowed that
Democrats have a point about Republicans breaking
their word. “It’s law. . . .
So I have difficulty backing off,†he said.
Ryan said he has the votes to push the broader,
$3.5 trillion budget blueprint out of committee
Wednesday and present it to the full House next
week. But the committee vote could be close.
The blueprint largely reprises the spending plan
Ryan unveiled one year ago, with a few new details
penciled in. The plan would put the nation on course
to balance the budget by 2040 and shrink the
national debt to historic norms as a percentage of
the economy. But because Ryan rejects higher taxes,
that path would require significant reductions in a
host of popular programs.
The plan would cut
spending on the major programs for the poor,
including Medicaid and food stamps, while giving the
states greater responsibility for their
administration. Recipients would also be given a
deadline to find work and get off the dole.
Education and job training programs would be
consolidated and “modernized,†the plan says.
And spending on Pell grants would be reduced and
retargeted toward low-income college students most
in need of assistance.
On Medicare — a flash point last year — the
Ryan budget once again proposes to raise the
eligibility age to 67 and cap spending on those who
turn 65 after 2023, offering them a set amount with
which to purchase private health insurance on newly
created federal exchanges. In reaction to Democratic
criticism that his plan “ends Medicare,†Ryan
now aims to preserve traditional Medicare as an
option, though it could cost seniors more than the
cheaper private plans.
All told, Ryan proposes to slash federal spending
by $5.3 trillion over the next decade, compared with
Obama’s latest budget blueprint. But deficits
under the Ryan budget would be only about
$3.3 trillion smaller because his plan would
generate less tax revenue.
On taxes, Ryan proposes to collapse today’s six
brackets into two. The bottom 10 percent rate would
be preserved, while the top rate would fall from
35 percent to 25 percent. Corporations would get the
same reduction, as well as dramatically lower rates
on profits earned overseas.
To pay for those changes, Ryan proposes to wipe out
deductions, credits and other tax breaks that
benefit people at every income level. Neither he nor
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp
(R-Mich.) would spell out specifics on Tuesday.
“We owe the country an alternative path if we
don’t like the path the president is taking us on.
Whoever our nominee is going to be owes the country
that choice of two futures,†Ryan said. “We’re
helping them put this together.â€
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney
immediately endorsed the Ryan budget, calling it
“a bold and exciting effort.†Former senator
Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) was silent. Meanwhile,
reaction from the White House was sharp.
“The House budget once again fails the test of
balance, fairness and shared responsibility,â€
White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer
said in a statement. “It would shower the
wealthiest few Americans with an average tax cut of
at least $150,000†— paid for, he said, “by
undermining Medicare.â€
