Paul Ryan: The Only One With A Plan

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Change has come to America, and many Americans have lost hope. A change in direction is needed, but the Republicans run around scared as the Democrats disregard the truth, and throw around threats like the possibility of a government shutdown. One member of the GOP, however, doesn't play the game like the rest of the Republicans, and is actually providing an alternative plan to the leftist attack against the American form of government.

Fact is, if we don't change direction, the current unsustainable direction will break us fiscally and economically. The current policies are unsustainable and politically and culturally bankrupting. Without changing direction, the future of our country, the one our grandchildren will live in, is severely threatened.

That brings into the picture House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R–WI) budget proposal. The leftists are afraid of it, and they are throwing every attack they can at it. Ryan, however, despite the lies perpetrated by the Democrats, has put together a budget that seriously tackles what ails us, and sets the United States back on a path towards economic sanity.

Paul Ryan's budget works on the premise that government is not the cure-all, and in fact government dependence, and higher taxes, not only will worsen our current situation, but to maintain our current spending levels are seriously unsustainable and damaging to America's future. Ryan's budget attacks the fundamental problem of big government, and entitlement spending, while protecting the system our Founding Fathers put into place that promotes independence, self-reliance, personal responsibility, opportunity, and a limited federal government.

By tackling spending and debt, Paul Ryan's budget works to achieve real spending cuts and serious reforms that will save many of the programs, such as medicare and medicaid, he is being accused of killing. The reforms include an injection of the free market into many of these government programs, hence the reason Democrats are so angry; they don't wish to relinquish the government's monopoly.

Paring back non-security discretionary spending, Ryan's budget actually does what the Democrats claimed they aimed to do - pay as you go. Meanwhile, Ryan's budget also tackles farm subsidies and the growing federal bureaucracy by repealing Obamacare.

Ryan's proposal cuts the federal government's bestowal of money grants, tax breaks, or other special favorable treatment of preferred corporations, rolls back Pell grants, and reduces non-security discretionary spending levels back below 2008 levels, and then freezes it for five years. The budget aims to reform medicare, federal workers’ compensation, food stamp spending, and the government's policies regarding various subsidy programs that predominantly go to large "favored status" businesses.

For Medicare, the reforms do not affect anyone age 55 and older. Then, for the younger folks, the reforms create a new premium-support program, where each Medicare enrollee would get a fixed government contribution to the health plan of his or her choice. By integrating the free market into the system, competition would ensue, which would reduce healthcare costs while increasing patient satisfaction. The reforms make the program more sustainable, while giving the States more control over the programs as would be in line constitutionally.

Ryan's budget also takes on taxes, reducing key tax rates in the interest of creating economic growth. The corporate tax rate would go from 35 percent to 25 percent, spurring the drive for entrepreneurism in America.

Though the defense budget in this proposal is lower than I would like, and the plan does not reduce welfare spending nearly enough (while not touching Social Security at all), the Ryan budget is a serious attempt to reduce spending in the trillions of dollars. . . something the Democrats, or Boehner's establishment Republicans, refuse to do.

As for the argument that the Senate will just reject it, or Obama will veto it - let them. Then propose it again, and let them reject it again. Remember, welfare reform was rejected by President Clinton a couple times, before he finally gave in. By vetoing Ryan's budget, or voting against it in the House or Senate, it becomes clear to the voters that the Democrats have no intention of reducing spending. By proposing similar budgets over and over again, it forces the Democrats to own their position on the budget, and will inform the voters even more who the Democrats are, thus encouraging 2012 to be the same Tea Party landslide that 2010's election was.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary