Paul Ryan's Congressional Budget-Filled With Snake Oil

You've heard the saying "Don't let the green grass fool you", so listen to the truth when folks caution you not to be fooled by the Congressional Budget introduced by House Budget Chairman  Paul Ryan (R-WI). Have confidence in your ability to understand some basic things that Republicans try and make complex. Let's take it step by step so that things are easy to follow.

First of all, just remember that a budget is a basic plan designed to project what money will come in (revenue) and what money will be spent and on what.  It's the action plan for the nation to follow. Most reasonable folks agree that our country's current situation calls for us to bring more money in and cut spending so that we can decrease the gap in unfunded spending and reduce our need to borrow money from others. Unfunded spending and borrowing money creates the "budget deficit".  The budget outlines our priorities, what things we feel are worth spending our monies on.

Republicans are focused on reducing taxes for the rich and increasing military spending. That's why the Ryan budget increases the military budget by $200 billion and why revenue in this plan is  $2 trillion lower than in the President's budget. Taxes are reduced to 25% for the rich versus the current rate of 35%, the lowest point in history. Yes, you got that right.  Rich folks taxes will go even lower while taxes on poor folks will increase. After providing for the wealthy, Ryan and the GOP needed to find $2 trillion dollars to balance the budget and tackle the current deficit trend.

They are counting on the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) to be dismantled by the Supreme Court, so they figured that would take care of $1.5 trillion of the $2 trillion they were looking for. Social safety nets, food stamps, housing assistance, training, education, transportation, Medicaid- all these programs are scheduled for deep cuts in the Ryan Plan. These are all reductions of expenditures for the poor. The new budget also continues the Republican effort to cut Medicare by holding down the growth of funding for the program and turning Medicare to a voucher program as they had in their last budget submission.

The plan seems to never change with Republicans-help the rich, squeeze the poor and give lip service to deficit reduction.  If you want to see more specific details, look at the Path To Prosperity, the entire Ryan budget.