–House Budget Chief Says FY 2013 Budget Plan Offers Clear ‘Alternative’
–Plan Endorses Sweeping Tax, Entitlement Reforms
By John Shaw
WASHINGTON (MNI) – House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan formally
unveiled his fiscal year 2013 budget Tuesday, arguing that his plan
offers a clear and stark alternative to President Barack Obama’s fiscal
policies.
“We feel morally obligated to offer a choice,” Ryan said at a
briefing. “We owe the country an alternative path,” he added, charging
that “the President is giving us a path of debt and decline.”
Ryan’s budget is based on his fiscal plan from last year, with some
revisions. It calls for extending the Bush era tax cuts and undertaking
fundamental tax reform in which the current six individual rates are
collapsed into two rates: 10% and 25%. The top corporate rate would be
cut to 25%.
The proposal would make deep cuts in the projected growth of
federal spending and calls for the fundamental overhaul of Medicare,
Medicaid and current welfare system.
It sets FY 2013 discretionary spending at $1.028 trillion, well
below last year’s debt ceiling agreement which limited discretionary
spending to $1.047 trillion.
Ryan also calls for passing a package of spending cuts to prevent
the $110 billion in across-the-board “sequestration” scheduled to begin
next January.
Ryan said his plan may have some political risks, but added that he
will not “cow” to the limitations of “entitlement politics.”
The plan would balance the budget in 2040, but he said strong
economic growth and more realistic budget scoring could lead to a
balanced budget in a decade.
Under Ryan’s plan, budget deficits would drop from $1.180 trillion
in FY2012 to $797 billion in FY2013, $496 billion in FY2014, $304
billion in FY2015, $241 billion in FY2016, $182 billion in FY2017, $166
billion in FY2018, $213 billion in FY2019, $225 billion in FY2020, $217
billion in FY2021 and $287 billion in FY2022.
For the FY2013 through FY2022 period, Ryan’s budget would have
$3.127 trillion in cumulative deficits.
Ryan will formally present his budget to the House Budget Committee
Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. for what is expected to be an all day session to
mark up his fiscal plan.
The full House is expected to vote on the Ryan budget next week as
well as a Democratic alternative.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad is expected to offer
his FY2013 fiscal plan next month.
Conrad repeated Tuesday said he believes Ryan’s budget breaks a key
element of last summer’s debt ceiling accord by reducing FY2013
discretionary spending from below the $1.047 trillion level.
** MNI Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **
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