Tea Party Hero and House Budget Committee Chairman
 |
| BigFurHat |
Although this year's budget battle remains deadlocked with obstinate libs who didn't get the message last November -or are keen to see the Cloward-Piven strategy through to full fruition- it's sure heartening to see House Republicans -after some squishyness in the 2011 stalemate- not allowing an unwanted status quo to be forced upon us...
The author of the bill -fiscal hawk Rep Paul Ryan (R-Wi)- will be presenting a comprehensive long-term plan for tackling the insane level of spending in this country on Tuesday... one that's also likely to buy the GOP some political capital for any immediate deal-making required to avoid a government shutdown. Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Ryan said it includes serious, pro-growth tax reform to help swell federal coffers along with the resurgent US economy this would bring.
But I'm real happy to report that the GOP actually appears serious about fulfilling the campaign promises of last year... as Mr Ryan's proposal goes some ways beyond what was recommended by the Obama's (specious) deficit commission:
Asked about the scale of his budget's spending reductions, Ryan said they would exceed $4 trillion. "We're looking at more than that right now," Ryan said on Fox News Sunday. "We're fine-tuning our numbers with the CBO literally today, over the weekend. But we're going to be cutting a lot more than that."
As The Hill reported last week, Ryan said his plan tackles the kind of spending cuts which are at the center of the current-year debate as well as larger systemic cuts.
"We intend to not only cut discretionary spending and put caps on spending, you have to address the drivers of our debt," Ryan said. "We need to engage with the American people on a fact-based budget, on stopping politicians from making empty promises to people and talk to the country about what is necessary to fix these problems."
Of the three major entitlement programs, Ryan's budget will seek to make major changes to Medicare and Medicaid.
"Medicare itself, literally, crowds out all other government spending at the end of the day," Ryan said. "We can't sustain that. We have got to get Medicare solvent." Ryan said that his plan was not a voucher program, but a "premium support system"...
On Medicaid, Ryan's budget aims to reform the way the program is funded. "We propose block grants to the states," Ryan said, but would not offer specific numbers. "We've had so much testimony from so many different governors saying give us the freedom to customize our Medicaid programs, to tailor for our unique populations in our states. We want to get governors freedom to do that."
Rather than helping to deal with the short-term 2011 budget mess San Fran Nan left, the resulting impasse has been an opportunity for political scheming by the Left: Democratic leadership thinks they can make the GOP look bad by forcing a shutdown, while painting Republicans as "extreme" at every turn.
But it's not working, and the Republicans may have now found a way to avoid being defined by the battle over this year's budget... one that might just pull us back from the edge of the abyss:
Meanwhile, Dingy Harry's glaringly fraudulent budget numbers went wholly unchallenged by the Obammunist bootlicks on
Face the Nation -here-