Paul Ryan Unveils Massive Cuts in GOP Budget

At the same time, it would lower taxes on corporations, the rich
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 5, 2011 9:49 AM CDT

Republicans unveiled a bold 2012 budget proposal today that, architect Paul Ryan boasts in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, “moves the debate from billions in spending cuts to trillions.” Ryan’s budget comes in at $3.53 trillion, or $179 billion less than President Obama’s. But he boasts that it would shave off $6.2 trillion over the next decade, balancing the budget by 2015. The budget would:

  • Roll domestic spending back to 2008 levels and freeze it there, proposing cuts in agriculture subsidies and the federal workforce, among other things.

  • Reform welfare with cuts to the food-stamp program and the consolidation of several job training programs into a “career scholarships” one.
  • Scale back “corporate welfare,” starting with the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But at the same time it would…
  • Reduce the top corporate tax rate, and the top tax rate for the wealthy, to 25%. Ryan says this will be “revenue neutral” because the budget also eliminates “a burdensome tangle of deductions and loopholes.”
  • Replace the current Medicaid system with a block grant that shifts control to the states
  • Replace Medicare with a system that subsidizes the private plan of seniors’ choosing
  • Repeal and defund the president’s health care reform law.
The budget has essentially no chance of becoming law, but, like the president’s budget before it, could serve as a touchstone in the coming debate. “The president’s budget was a safe budget,” one GOP rep tells Politico. “This budget is not a safe budget.” (More Paul Ryan stories.)

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