“We have a unique opportunity to sweep and remake the political landscape,” declared Congressman Paul Ryan, chair of the House Budget Committee, to a gathering of Republican faithful and Tea Party activists. The audience laughed and cheered as Ryan promised to lead a crusade to revamp U.S. taxes and domestic programs. Backed by almost all of his Republican Congressional colleagues, Ryan’s radical budget plan would:

  • Make immediate drastic cuts in social benefits—leading to slower economic growth, more unemployment, and additional hardships for the jobless, poor, and disabled.
  • Bite with increasing force over time—steadily squeezing the resources the federal government needs to help most citizens, while pushing costs for health care and other social needs onto state and local governments already under severe fiscal strain.
  • Slash taxes for the wealthy. As a joke circulating in Washington puts it, the Ryan plan means cuts for everyone. The rich get huge new tax cuts and most Americans get draconian cuts in education, job training, college loans, health care, and other necessities.
  • Leave the U.S. Treasury coping with big deficits. Despite massive spending cuts, nonpartisan analysts calculate that the Ryan budget would actually increase the deficit. more...