Klein: The Man With The Plan
Friday, April 9, 2010 at 12:40PM Great piece on Paul Ryan by Phillip Klein at the American Spectator. Ryan's ideas and vision are really starting to turn heads. To say he is on the come would be a gross understatement:
In late January, President Obama dazzled political reporters when he addressed a gathering of House Republicans in Baltimore. The press marveled at Obama's intelligence, command of the facts, and ability to swat down GOP arguments effortlessly during the 90-minute exchange. But at one point, Obama took a question from Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, the Republicans' resident policy whiz, and clearly met his match.
In his State of the Union address just two days earlier, Obama had vowed to "freeze" non-security-related discretionary spending as part of a new White House campaign to create the appearance that the administration was doing something to address ballooning deficits. Unlike mandatory spending on entitlement programs, such as Medicare and Social Security, that grow without any explicit action by Congress, new discretionary spending must be passed by Congress and signed into law by the president.
"I serve as a ranking member of the budget committee, so I'm going to talk a little budget if you don't mind," Ryan said to Obama. "The spending bills that you've signed into law, the domestic discretionary spending has been increased by 84 percent. You now want to freeze spending at this elevated level beginning next year. This means that total spending in your budget would grow at 3/100ths of 1 percent less than otherwise. I would simply submit that we could do more and start now."
In his response, Obama said he wanted to "just push back a little bit on the underlying premise about us increasing spending by 84 percent." He insisted, "The fact of the matter is, is that most of the increases in this year's budget, this past year's budget, were not as a consequence of policies that we initiated but instead were built in as a consequence of the automatic stabilizers that kick in because of this enormous recession." (The term "automatic stabilizers" refers to government payments such as welfare and unemployment benefits that tend to increase during an economic downturn.)
But Ryan shot back by noting a basic flaw in Obama's analysis. "I would simply say that automatic stabilizer spending is mandatory spending," he explained. "The discretionary spending, the bills that Congress signs that you sign into law, that has increased 84 percent."
In a tacit acknowledgement that he had been bested, Obama replied, "We'll have a longer debate on the budget numbers, all right?" and then proceeded to the next question.
A BIT LATER IN THE SESSION, however, Obama moved back to Ryan on a different topic. After a year of arguing that Republicans had presented no ideas on how to address the nation's fiscal crisis, Obama mentioned that Ryan had produced a "serious proposal" to do just that -- before offering his critique.
The proposal in question was Ryan's "Roadmap for America's Future," a sweeping plan to stave off the nation's looming economic and fiscal collapse by changing the tax code, overhauling the health care system, and reforming the nation's major entitlement programs. Its debt-reducing claims aren't based on mere fantasy -- the Congressional Budget Office has determined that the plan would boost economic growth while making Medicare and Social Security solvent. And it accomplishes these aims without raising taxes or affecting the benefits of current retirees.
Reader Comments (4)
Man, that was a long article. The guy is good and is going to make a big splash nationally. He seems to be one of the few shooting straight about our predicament.
Mr. Obama will never face the truth or facts that he is the one causing all the problems
of today... Just push back a little bit, make it a show and continue full speed ahead into
socialism and the ruin of our economy....I think Congressman Ryan and most Americans
see this man as a cancer on America and spreading at a rate that can't be cured in time
to stop the destruction that lies ahead....Armageddon, just maybe,it's a wait and see...
GeorgiaDawg, Obama will never face the truth. In his world, truth is whatever you want it to be.
Is it just me or does Paul Ryan look a little like Ronald Reagan?
Your are so right HB, He not only looks like RR , he thinks and talks like him also...
Look out liberals the Ryan Express is rolling Again....