No free lunch in Republican budget
By Ezra Klein,
WashPost
Published: April 9
The Republicans have a problem: Their budget promises don’t add up. They’ve committed to new tax cuts. They’ve proposed spending more on defense. They’ve promised they won’t change retirement programs for the current generation of seniors. But they’ve also promised to cut the deficit, and fast.
That’s left them with one option: deep cuts to programs for the poor. That’s what you see in the Ryan budget. It’s the basis for the Romney budget. It’s what Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul and Rick Santorum have proposed. But there’s a problem with that, too. Cutting programs for the poor isn’t popular. So Republicans have come up with a solution: Don’t call them “cuts.”
The Ryan budget’s section on these cuts is titled “Repairing the Social Safety Net.” It explains that “the welfare reforms of the 1990s, despite their success, were never extended beyond cash welfare to other means-tested programs.” It proposes to extend the welfare reform model to Medicaid, to food stamps and other unnamed “low-income assistance programs.”
Romney’s proposal is almost identical. “Welfare reform showed us how well a state-led approach can work,” he said in Detroit. “Let’s extend that conservative, small-government philosophy across the entire social safety net.” In addition to Medicaid and food stamps, he also mentions “housing subsidies and job training.”
(More here.)
WashPost
Published: April 9
The Republicans have a problem: Their budget promises don’t add up. They’ve committed to new tax cuts. They’ve proposed spending more on defense. They’ve promised they won’t change retirement programs for the current generation of seniors. But they’ve also promised to cut the deficit, and fast.
That’s left them with one option: deep cuts to programs for the poor. That’s what you see in the Ryan budget. It’s the basis for the Romney budget. It’s what Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul and Rick Santorum have proposed. But there’s a problem with that, too. Cutting programs for the poor isn’t popular. So Republicans have come up with a solution: Don’t call them “cuts.”
The Ryan budget’s section on these cuts is titled “Repairing the Social Safety Net.” It explains that “the welfare reforms of the 1990s, despite their success, were never extended beyond cash welfare to other means-tested programs.” It proposes to extend the welfare reform model to Medicaid, to food stamps and other unnamed “low-income assistance programs.”
Romney’s proposal is almost identical. “Welfare reform showed us how well a state-led approach can work,” he said in Detroit. “Let’s extend that conservative, small-government philosophy across the entire social safety net.” In addition to Medicaid and food stamps, he also mentions “housing subsidies and job training.”
(More here.)
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1 Comments:
I've noticed several editorials attacking the Ryan budget proposal and that is fair enough. Depending on ones philosophical leanings there are plenty things in the budget to discuss/cuss. My question – where is the liberal budget? Why no commentary on the Obama budget, the one that got zero votes from the members of his own party? Why no questions on the lack of a Senate budget? Instead of whining over Ryan’s budget, liberals should produce one of their own and pass it.
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