Ryan: Where's The President's Budget?

In a hard-hitting, candid editorial in the Wall Street Journal, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) accused President Obama of both failing to produce a budget plan as well as disregarding entitlement spending related to the debt-limit deal.

As outlined in the deal, immediate savings generated through spending caps will total roughly $915 billion over the next decade, with as much as $1.5 trillion more added to that based on the recommendations from a new bipartisan, bicameral committee. Should Congress fail to implement the committee’s proposal by December 23, roughly $1-to-$1.5 trillion worth of domestic and defense spending cuts would be triggered. Meanwhile, the nation’s debt limit increases both times in increments equal to the cuts.

Yet, though he voted for the deal, Ryan, who chairs the House Budget Committee, wrote today that President Obama must do more to reduce the deficit.

“[Obama] has offered a lot of rhetoric but no real plan to avoid a spending-driven debt crisis.” Ryan said.

Ryan explained that while producing a budget is a basic responsibility of a governing party, it has been two years since the Democratically-controlled Senate has passed any budget. 

And to make matters worse, Ryan continued, Obama has not sufficiently addressed federal healthcare spending. While Obama should focus on economic growth, his healthcare law — the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — actually drives up costs, argued Ryan.

“Health-care costs rose about 8% in 2011 and are projected to rise by 8.5% in 2012.”

In order to finance the government’s projected spending path, the CBO’s Long-Term Outlook estimated that total tax revenues would need to double by mid-century. 

“At this rate, taxes would have to rise again and again just to keep up with health-care spending,” wrote Ryan. “Is it any wonder that the president and his party are afraid to produce a budget that requires such ruinous levels of taxation?”

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