Though Congress and the president have still not finalized this year’s federal spending plan,they are nonetheless moving ahead with next year’s.
House Republicans,under the leadership of Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan,R-Wisc.,have produced a document that balances the federal ledger in 10 years. Senate Democrats,led by Sen. Patty Murray,D-Wash.,are lagging behind,but they have an excuse. They are out of practice,having failed to produce and pass a budget for more than 1,400 days. They are also apparently stuck,unable to find the $1 trillion in new taxes they want to fuel yet another increase in spending. President Barack Obama,meanwhile,is on the sidelines. The White House missed the statutory deadline for delivering its budget document to Congress and is,technically anyway,in violation of the law. Guess what is getting all the attention?
In a rational world,the Senate Democrats having passed no budget for almost five years and White House being late with its own would be at least as interesting as what Chairman Ryan has proposed. Unfortunately Washington is not a rational place,so the Ryan document has commanded the most attention.
It is a cheerful document. In addition to getting the budget in balance in 10 years it repeals the funding for Obamacare while pushing for much-needed reforms in other aspects of the federal government. The Ryan budget goes a long way toward accomplishing what the Heritage Foundation defines as the six essential goals of budget policy:Get to balance in a decade without raising taxes;defund Obamacare in its entirety;overhaul entitlement programs like Social Security in a way that keeps the promise made to America’s seniors while forestalling its impending bankruptcy;fully fund national defense;roll back discretionary spending;and lay the groundwork for fundamental tax reform with federal revenues at the post-war historical average of 18.5 percent of U.S. GDP.
That is not to say the Ryan budget accomplishes all these things—but it comes closer than what either the Democrats or President Obama have proposed thus far because they have proposed nothing. We do know,thanks to White House spokesman Jay Carney,that whatever Obama proposes it will not balance—ever.
Read More at US News . By Peter Roff.