The bottom line is that Ryan has a grasp on the budget.
Economist Dean Baker: Ryan Budget Isn't A Serious Proposal.It is easy to see that Ryan himself could not possibly be serious about the document he put out as a "Path to Prosperity." The Congressional Budget Office analysis of the plan, which was prepared under Representative Ryan's direction, shows that all categories of government spending outside of health care and Social Security will shrink to 3.75 percent of GDP by 2050. This 3.75 percent of GDP includes defense spending, which is [already] currently close to 4.0 percent of GDP
Economist William Gale: "Low- And Middle-Class Households Bear The Entire Burden Of Closing The Fiscal Gap" Under Ryan's Budget Plan. Tax Policy Center co-director William Gale, who served as a senior staff economist for the Council of Economic Advisers under President George H.W. Bush, wrote that Ryan's fiscal year 2013 budget plan is "essentially, an effort to have low- and middle-class households bear the entire burden of closing the fiscal gap and bear the costs of financing an additional tax cut for high income households."
Tax Policy Center: Those Making More Than $1 Million Would Receive An Average Tax Cut Of $265,000 In Addition To Their Benefits From The Bush Tax Cuts. From a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) analysis of the Ryan plan:
Jonathan Cohn, Health Care Journalist: "Ryan Really Believes In Ending Medicare As We Know It." New Republic blogger and health care journalist Jonathan Cohn wrote that Ryan's plan would end Medicare as we know it by eliminating the program's guarantee of comprehensive medical benefits while raising the eligibility age and producing vouchers that will quickly prove inadequate to allow seniors to purchase the care they need
Financial Journalist Gleckman: Ryan Plan "Suggests Seniors Would Pay A Lot More Even If Medical Care Becomes More Efficient."
Economist Paul Krugman: "Fraudulent" Ryan Plan Relies On "Completely Unsupported" Deficit Reduction Assertion. the Ryan budget purports to reduce the deficit -- but the alleged deficit reduction depends on the completely unsupported assertion that trillions of dollars in revenue can be found by closing tax loopholes.
And we're talking about a lot of loophole-closing. As Howard Gleckman of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center points out, to make his numbers work Mr. Ryan would, by 2022, have to close enough loopholes to yield an extra $700 billion in revenue every year. That's a lot of money, even in an economy as big as ours. So which specific loopholes has Mr. Ryan, who issued a 98-page manifesto on behalf of his budget, said he would close?
None. Not one.
Tax Policy Center: Ryan Plan Would "Add $4.6 Trillion To The Federal Deficit Over The Next Decade."
Citizens For Tax Justice Director Robert McIntyre: Ryan Plan Is "All Smoke And Mirrors And No Deficit Reduction.
The Center on Budget and PolicyPriorities Ryan Supported Fiscally Irresponsible Bush Tax Cuts. Ryan voted to support the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003. He also praised the extension of the Bush tax cuts in 2010. As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities noted, the Bush tax cuts did "lasting harm" to the federal deficit.
Medicare Part D: Ryan Supported Medicare Part D. In 2003, Ryan voted for the Medicare Prescription Drug and Modernization Act. At the time, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the bill would increase deficits by $372.5 billion over a 10 year period. In 2009, Washington Post writer Ezra Klein noted: "It is insane that the people who voted for the deficit-financed, $700 billion Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit are allowed to scream about fiscal rectitude this year."
Nate Silver NY Times: Since 1900, Ryan Is The Most Ideological Person With Congressional Experience Picked To Be VP. New York Times statistician Nate Silver examined all vice presidential picks since 1900 who had congressional experience. He found that Ryan was "further from the center" than any previous pick. Silver also found that Ryan was roughly as conservative as failed presidential candidate Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN).
Bottom line: Ryan is an extremist ideologue who supported proposals which ballooned the deficit, including the Bush tax cuts and Medicare Part D because they were politically expedient, not because they had some fiscal rectitude about them. His proposals include privatizing Social Security, ending the current Medicare program, and more. And his budget has yet to find a single mainstream economist who thinks it is anything more than a lot of smoke.
Ryan "knows the budget". That's a hot one!
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