House Republicans released their budget outline on Tuesday to an immediate chorus of criticism that they're conducting class warfare aimed at the poor in order to protect the interests of a small, high-income minority.
The Paul Ryan plan, as the bill is being called, aims to reduce the deficit but commences with a giant tax cut which some critics say will disproportionately benefit the better off. The plan envisions making the tax cut for the highest earners affordable through unspecified tax reform.
Ryan's plan, which is as much a party position paper as a budget proposal, still envisions the repeal of Obamacare and outlines an extensive series of biting cuts to domestic programs ranging from Medicaid to college grants. It would also reportedly require future Medicare patients to bear more of the program's cost.
On Tuesday Senate Democrats seized on the plan to underline what they called its tilt toward the wealthy, claiming that it lowers taxes on the rich, increases taxes on the middle class, and cuts programs for the poor.
By contrast Democrats offered their counter proposal that offered higher spending on domestic programs and additional tax hikes on top-bracket earners. That plan will inevitably be rejected by the GOP-controlled House, however.
According to the Huffington Post the dueling GOP and Democratic budget proposals are more about defining their political differences than charting a path forward toward a solution.
Congressional budgets often simply state party positions, and Ryan's plan and the Democratic counter proposals are both accused of doing that.
The partisan posturing comes even as President Barack Obama travels to Capitol Hill in an attempt to resuscitate his efforts to achieve bipartisanship.
Ryan, the losing vice presidential nominee last year, has returned to his former role as Budget Committee chairman, a task he fell back into with abandon.
'We're introducing a budget that balances in 10 years – without raising taxes,' Ryan said in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal this week. 'How do we do it? We stop spending money the government doesn't have.' Ryan's plan would slash $4.6 trillion in spending over the coming decade, he says.
Although the GOP plans for healthcare were rejected by the electorate in November Ryan has nonetheless resurrected the controversial Medicare proposal that replaces traditional Medicare for those currently under 55 with a government subsidy to buy health insurance on the open market.
Critics of the plan say the subsidies won't grow with inflation fast enough and would shove thousands of dollars in higher premiums onto seniors before very long.
The House GOP plan again proposes sharp cuts to the Medicaid health program for the poor, tighter food stamp eligibility rules and claims it would achieve $1.8 trillion in savings over a decade by repealing Obamacare.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.Eschetic | Mar 14, 2013, 12:09 PM EDT
It is time for REAL Republicans to stand up and take back their party from these Tea Party twits whose benighted actions are all but insuring that the presidency (if not the Congress) will be controlled by the OTHER party for a generation! After having their retrograde agenda (and specifically the elementary school "economics" of Paul Ryan soundly rejected by the voters, these ostriches, with their heads planted firmly in the sand (or more accurately, up their own self-interested posteriors) are shoveling out their same discredited agenda. It isn't enough that they are doing their best to dismantle the economic regulations passed in response to the Great Depression and which have prevented a recurrence of catastrophic economic instability for over half a century for the short term benefit of their wealthiest sponsors. Playing to the ignorance of their core followers they are rejecting any REAL responsible reform in other areas as well. Repeal of the first responsible health care reform in 70 years (and basically a variation on a proven REPUBLICAN plan, at that!) would not only devastate health care access for thousands, but not result in a fraction of the illusory "savings" touted by its disingenuous opponents.
olovely | Mar 14, 2013, 08:33 AM EDT
Paul Ryan used Social Security to pay for his college expenses. Now his sacred mission is to prevent anyone else from doing the same.
Pittsburghkid | Mar 13, 2013, 07:00 PM EDT
Roberts may have out smarted Obama. Roberts declared Obamacare a tax bill. According to the Constitution, all tax bills must originate in the House of Representatives. This might be the undoing of Obamacare.
seanomelb | Mar 13, 2013, 06:05 PM EDT
Both houses passed Obamacare and was upheld in the high court. Ryan and the party of no just cannot accept the will of the people,only the will of their rich friends. The GOP is torn apart and languishing and becoming more irrelevant day by day.
Smyrnian | Mar 13, 2013, 02:10 PM EDT
Torbreezy - EVERYTHING on Irish Central is an editorial!
McNamara31 | Mar 13, 2013, 01:18 PM EDT
Nicomax So true.
Nicomax | Mar 13, 2013, 01:12 PM EDT
We can rail against everything European, but at least when people lost their jobs after the 2008 financial meltdown, most workers in Europe continued to have medical care available for themselves and their families. I guess we are made of sterner stuff, and when the pink slip comes just buck up and bear it. The Ryan plan is 'crumb based' in that whatever the swells are willing to sweep off the table, the undeserving can make use of.
joanxis | Mar 13, 2013, 12:34 PM EDT
Very well said, Butch.
seanfer7 | Mar 13, 2013, 12:28 PM EDT
Big Daddy cool Who pays for the healthcare of the 8 75 worker now? Why didn't you support medicare for all? Calling the President names only shows that the issues are to big for some
FastEddy | Mar 13, 2013, 11:32 AM EDT
"... Although the GOP plans for healthcare were rejected by the electorate in November Ryan has nonetheless resurrected the controversial Medicare proposal that replaces traditional Medicare for those currently under 55 with a government subsidy to buy health insurance on the open market. ..." Very funny, but I don't remember seeing that on the November ballot. It is true that the populace at large has been hoodwinked into going along with that huge, fat tax increase called BummerCare ... and, yes, many of the illegal Irish welfare sluts here in the states will be cut out of the gravy train. ... Consider the poor illegal meskins, too !
Butch1 | Mar 13, 2013, 11:32 AM EDT
This idiot will not accept the fact that he and his side lost the election. The will of the people voted to keep Obamacare in place but, this fool is going to waste time and money trying to get rid of something that he cannot change whilst America really needs the Congress to get busy working on a real Jobs Bill. Is it too much for the Majority Leader in the House to slap some sense into this fool and also into his majority whip, Rep. Canter to get these Tea Party Idiots to face the reality of the situation and listen to the people ( the majority who voted what THEY want ) who want them to start moving forward. Obama won his second term in office and he should NOT get anymore resistance from these deadbeats. They played politics for four years to try and kick him out of office. It didn't work. So stop it and let him at least try what he wants to do. If he screws it up, you will have your chance in 2016. But to continue to not let the voters have what they want because you are acting like spoiled brats who just have to have their way is not right.
CitizenWhy | Mar 13, 2013, 10:11 AM EDT
The deficit is shrinking, the debt becoming manageable. ... The Ryan budget, including gutting Social Security, which is fiscally sound until 2035 and can easily be fixed beyond that date by raising the the pay-in salary cap, is a super-sized, ideologically driven version of the "austerity" policies taking place in Europe.these policies have caused the European economies to shrink. As the Ryan led US economy would shrink, and the Republicans insist on continuing the US military expenditures, spending would shrink and tax revenues would shrink due to reduced US spending and Republican shrinkage or elimination of taxes on the wealthy. Then the deficit will go up, and the pollution, due to no regulation, would be out of control. ... The Ryan budget is designed as a distraction from worsening income shrinkage and rising inequality in the ownership of assets, the real threat to the health of the US economy.
bunkerhill | Mar 13, 2013, 09:55 AM EDT
We had an outrageous column in our local paper written by a syndicated columnist. He wrote "The system we are trying to perpetrate was created for the explicit benefit of the so-called "Greatest Generation", the most coddled and cared for cohort in American history. Bear in mind that "Greatest Generation" was a term from Tom Brokaw and not the young soldiers. Does anyone have a number of our bravest from WWII and all the ensuing wars who never came home or never lived long enough to collect a social security check. The world would be a much different place with the sacrifices of these selfless men and women. We paid into Social Security from the day we went to work and often could have used the money. If we had saved it ourselves we would be well off today. The US Government never contributed a dime to Social Security. Our congressmen have 67 paid holidays, 3 weeks vacation, unlimited sick days along with enormous salaries, health care and huge pensions all paid by us. What a travesty.
McNamara31 | Mar 13, 2013, 09:39 AM EDT
Paul Ryan who totally benefited from social security as a teenager,yet wanted to privatize social security for the rest of us before the crash of 2008, is a very dangerous man to the middle class. “Ryan’s ‘Road map’ protects the fortunes of the rich but for the rest of us, it’s an eight-lane expressway to destruction. And before Obama's election, the hypocritical Mr.Ryan, found it very easy to vote for every multi trillion dollar unpaid war and drug plan put in front of him. Ryan is using the label "deficit reduction" to move his longtime agenda to destroy American safety net programs and deliver the victims to Wall St with a Ryan "voucher".
pndirishandprou | Mar 13, 2013, 09:30 AM EDT
That's what the GOP is all about: Ensure low taxes for the wealthy, powerful and privileged, pander to the gun crazies. Everything else is secondary.
torbreezy | Mar 13, 2013, 08:55 AM EDT
Is this piece an editorial? Why doesn't it have the author's name?
bigdaddycool | Mar 13, 2013, 08:47 AM EDT
Obama doesn't have a plan...His whole idea is too create class envy, produce no wealth, turn America into Europe, (or worse... just Greece...) and give My money away to people who do not earn it...Here is OBAMA CARE in a nutshell...Everyone who does not have health insurance will be required to buy it from the federal government...at a steep cost...A person who makes $8.75 an hour will pay for that insurance at a cost of $2.75 an hour...How does a man take care of his family on $6 an hour...? And the American Muslim Terrorist turned President calls that compassionate...Really...? Really...?