Most Conservatives appreciate Paul Ryan’s deep knowledge of budget matters. He has been a stalwart budget hawk for most of his tenure in the House and added a solid fiscal tint to the Romney ticket. Ryan would have been a stellar Veep. That’s why it pains CP-USA to give Mr. Ryan a D-minus for his latest budget proposal.
Ryan’s budget requires a full repeal of ObamaCare. While that is certainly a step in the right direction philosophically, the current political reality renders his entire Bill DOA in the Senate because of that keystone requirement. Full repeal is the right thing to do but this Budget needs more workable tools to get the job done. Republicans must continue working on repeal but these budget talks will get bogged down on that issue alone.
The Ryan Budget closes some tax loopholes but keeps most tax rates at current levels. That’s important because Obama has already wrested serious tax increases from Republicans in January. Conservatives understand that Democrats will just spend additional revenues instead of curbing deficits. However, there is some merit in closing a few of those pork-filled tax dodges for special interests.
The central problem with Ryan’s strategy is that it balances the budget in 10 years. Ten Years! That’s absurd in the extreme! Any responsible plan would require balancing the budget in no more than five years (tops) considering our massive national debt and unrelenting annual deficits. The current debt is nearing $17 Trillion and counting. That can’t be allowed to grow for 10 more years while accruing annual deficits ranging from $1T to $500B. Imagine what the interest payments will be on a $25T debt! Balancing the budget in 10 years is “idiotic” and that’s being charitable.
Ryan’s proposal also assumes that Congress will actually abide by that budget for the next 10 years. Based on its sordid history, what rational person believes Congress will keep its promise for 10 months let alone 10 years? Ryan’s says, in effect, that the terms of the 2013 Budget Act will remain intact for 10 years. Who believes that, considering the Feds have already spent $30B more this year than they did by March last year?
Another BIG problem with Mr. Ryan’s budget is that he still uses Baseline Budgeting. This pernicious concept requires all government spending to automatically increase by 7% every year. “Automatically” is the key word. All future spending increases or “cuts” are pegged against that 7% “Baseline”. This fiscal shell game allows Ryan to falsely claim that he cuts spending by 4% over 10 years when he actually increases spending by 3% every year.
Paul Ryan and the rest of Congress MUST STOP using the dangerous concept of Baseline Budgeting if America is to survive. We need real spending cuts, not financial gimmicks. If Ryan wants to play financial con games he should go work for Goldman Sachs.
Even if we assume that all future Congresses and all future Presidents will abide by the 2013 Budget for the next 10 years (which is a ludicrous assumption in the first place), that doesn’t begin to solve our fiscal problems. Under Ryan’s plan the U.S. will accrue a massive $25T National Debt. And that will be accompanied by unmerciful interest payments that will crush all discretionary spending options for critical programs in Homeland Security and Defense. In 10 years the United States will be asking the French military to help protect us from Iran. Only the liberals at MSNBC and the New York Times would love that scenario.
The major two parties are creating a slow-motion national tragedy that our children must endure for the next 10 generations. Just inching toward a balanced budget over 10 years is not good enough. Not by a long shot. That massive $25T Debt and onerous interest charges will still be there, looming. It’s like having the Washington Monument in your back yard; it can’t be ignored and it won’t just disappear.
Congress must enact a budget that balances in five years, reduces needless regulations, cuts taxes and allows private industry the freedom to spur real job growth in America. More tax payers (not more tax increases) will generate surpluses for 10 years thereafter. America needs a plan that creates surpluses not “hopes” for just breaking even. Hope is not a strategy. Congress must also enact a Tax Holiday that will encourage U.S. multi-national corporations to repatriate some of the billions in profits they are currently hoarding off-shore. READ CP-USA BUDGET SOLUTION
If you’re 10 feet underwater it won’t help to rise only nine feet because you’re still underwater. You can drown in one foot of water just as fast as being 10 feet under. America’s national tombstone will not recount our valiant struggle to get our heads above water. It will simply read “The USA Drowned. RIP”.
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