[Educationforall] GOP lays out plan to make budget cuts & tax cuts the priority over the next decade

[Justin Akers Chacon]

The Democrats offer no alternative except to complain of the 'extreme depth' of the proposed cuts. 
------------ 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703806304576240751124518520.html?mod=WSJ_Election_LEFTSecondStories

Wall STREET JOURNAL
  a.. POLITICS 
  b.. APRIL 3, 2011, 2:29 P.M. ET 
  c.. GOP to Propose Cutting Spending by Over $4 Trillion in 10 Years

By TOM BARKLEY
WASHINGTON --- House Republicans will propose slashing federal spending by more than $4 trillion over the next decade, by capping spending, overhauling entitlement programs and revamping the tax system, the chairman of the Budget Committee said Sunday.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) outlined on "Fox News Sunday" key points of a much-anticipated 2012 budget proposal he is expected to roll out Tuesday. Mr. Ryan indicated a significant share of the savings would come from a plan to transform Medicare from a federal program that guarantees benefits to senior citizens into a "premium support system" like the healthcare retirement plans used by members of Congress and federal employees. Under his plan, Mr. Ryan said, Medicare would offer a "list of plans out there that compete against each other for your business, and seniors pick the plan of their choosing. And then Medicare subsidizes that plan."

Mr. Ryan said the proposal would be similar to one he proposed with Alice Rivlin, a former Office of Management and Budget director during the Clinton administration.

Mr. Ryan said speculation that he will propose turning Medicare into a voucher program is inaccurate. But he confirmed that the proposal would overhaul Medicaid into a system of block grants given to states, which would be free to devise their own plans.

"We do increase and grow Medicare and Medicaid spending, but not at the pace they're growing at because they're completely unsustainable," Mr. Ryan said.

With Democrats in charge of the Senate and the White House, Mr. Ryan's proposals have little chance of becoming law. But they have a strong chance of defining the Republican positions in the 2012 election debate over how to reduce the U.S. debt, how big the federal government should be and what it should do.

Mr. Ryan declined to disclose Sunday exactly how much his fiscal 2012 proposal would cut, saying Republicans are still fine-tuning their numbers over the weekend. But reductions over the next decade would exceed the $4 trillion in cuts proposed by the president's fiscal commission, he said.

The plan would cap overall spending to a percentage of gross domestic product to "get government back to its historic size," below the current spending level of about 25% of gross domestic product, Mr. Ryan said. He said a specific limit hasn't been set yet.

Mr. Ryan said his proposal would also call for statutory caps on discretionary spending.

Mr. Ryan said overhauling the tax code by cutting tax rates and "broadening the base" will be central to his plan, but Mr. Ryan said he doesn't intend for a tax system overhaul to raise overall revenues.

"Pro-growth tax reform is a key ingredient to getting this economy working again," he said.

Mr. Ryan expressed impatience with the debate over how much to cut from a 2011 spending bill that needs to pass Congress by next Friday to avoid a possible shutdown of many federal government operations. "I do want to get off shaving tens of billions of dollars, and get on to talking about trillions of dollars," Mr. Ryan said.

Without endorsing Mr. Ryan's specific approach, some Democrats used Sunday talk show appearances to send a message that they too are prepared to tackle the growth of the big entitlement programs, including Medicare, as well as reining in programs that benefit farmers and curtailing corporate tax breaks.

Sen. Mark Warner (D., Va.), a member of a bipartisan group of Senators that's trying to hammer out a long-term plan to cut the deficit, told CNN's State of the Union Sunday "let's get out of this small ball. Let's go ahead and take on these tough issues around spending, around entitlements."

But Mr. Warner expressed reservations that Mr. Ryan's plan will rely heavily on cuts to social programs, and won't address such issues as raising revenue by curtailing corporate tax breaks.

Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas), appearing with Mr. Warner, said "we need to look at everything," but reiterated his position that the U.S. needs to amend the Constitution to require a balanced federal budget, and said he won't vote to raise the federal debt ceiling later this spring if the measure doesn't come with significant steps to rein in spending.

The House Republican proposal comes as the two parties are locked in a battle over passing a budget for the current fiscal year, with a potential government shutdown looming Friday. When asked whether Republicans should accept a compromise with Democrats that would cut $33 billion in the remaining six months of the 2011 fiscal year, Mr. Ryan said he didn't want to undercut the negotiating position of House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio). But he said the fact that the House has passed two budget bills proves that Republicans "don't want to shut the government down."

Mr. Ryan blamed President Barack Obama for a lack of leadership on budget matters.

"I find it kind of ironic that the week we're trying to engage the president, the Democrats and the country with an honest debate about our budget, with real solutions to fix this country's problems and prevent a debt crisis, the president is launching his re-election campaign," he said.

In separate appearances Sunday, senior Democrats positioned the GOP's conservative tea party wing as the obstacles to progress on both short and long term spending issues, pursuing a strategy of portraying tea party activists as "extreme" on spending issues.

Asked about the possibility of a government shutdown by the end of the coming week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) told CBS's "Face the Nation" that what happens will be up to Republican House leaders.

"The Republican leadership in the House has to make a decision whether to do the right thing for the country, or the right thing for the tea party," Mr. Reid said.

Write to Tom Barkley at tom.barkley at dowjones.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.aktivix.org/pipermail/educationforall/attachments/20110403/1a58f71f/attachment.htm>