Republicans unveiled a bold 2012 budget proposal today that, architect Paul Ryan boasts in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, “moves the debate from billions in spending cuts to trillions.” Ryan’s budget comes in at $3.53 trillion, or $179 billion less than President Obama’s. But he boasts that it would shave off $6.2 trillion over the next decade, balancing the budget by 2015. The budget would:
- Roll domestic spending back to 2008 levels and freeze it there, proposing cuts in agriculture subsidies and the federal workforce, among other things.
- Reform welfare with cuts to the food-stamp program and the consolidation of several job training programs into a “career scholarships” one.
- Scale back “corporate welfare,” starting with the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But at the same time it would…
- Reduce the top corporate tax rate, and the top tax rate for the wealthy, to 25%. Ryan says this will be “revenue neutral” because the budget also eliminates “a burdensome tangle of deductions and loopholes.”
- Replace the current Medicaid system with a block grant that shifts control to the states
- Replace Medicare with a system that subsidizes the private plan of seniors’ choosing
- Repeal and defund the president’s health care reform law.
The budget has essentially no chance of becoming law, but, like the president’s budget before it, could serve as a touchstone in the coming debate. “The president’s budget was a safe budget,” one GOP rep tells
Politico. “This budget is not a safe budget.” (More
Paul Ryan stories.)
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