New GOP Proposal To Balance Budget In Five Years

In what they call a “Cut, Cap and Balance” approach to solving the nation’s fiscal mess, a group of House Republicans introduced legislation Friday that they say would balance the budget in five years while simultaneously creating a $190 billion surplus. 

With hopes of their legislation being included in current budget negotiations, Reps. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Tom Graves (R-Ga.) said the bill they’ve introduced differs from the Ryan budget in that it caps government spending at 18 percent of GDP. 

Although the House Republican quartet touted their bill’s potential speedy effects on the economy, they failed to get into specifics about how the plan would be executed. 

“[The bill] creates a box for spending in which government has to operate within. You set the confinements, the boundaries and we’re not talking about what’s in that box, that’s for appropriating committees,” Graves said. “What ever you can fit inside that box, that’s fine, but the box is only so big. Over the next five years the box continues to shrink over time reach 18 percent of GDP. 

Additionally, the group of Congressmen said their bill differed from the Ryan budget in that while Ryan’s budget changes entitlement programs for people under the age of 55, their version changes entitlements for those under 59.