Rep. Paul Ryan Concedes GOP Alternative Budget Would Increase The Deficit ‘A Lot’
Rep. Paul Ryan Concedes GOP Alternative Budget Would Increase The Deficit ‘A Lot’
Last week, the House GOP presented its alternative budget proposal. Members of the media, including conservative commentators, widely panned the document for being scant on details and appearing more as “campaign-style talking points.” Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), ranking member of the House Budget Committee, has said he will release yet another budget proposal, but this time with more specifics.
Though Ryan has been most critical of the deficit impact of Obama’s budget, he has been unable to assess the deficit impact of his own budget. After being repeatedly asked this weekend by Bloomberg’s Al Hunt about “how large” the deficit would be under the Republican plan, Ryan finally respond, “A lot”:
HUNT: But the Obama budget deficit is $1.4 trillion. How, roughly, how large will yours be?
RYAN: Their budget deficit is $1.8 trillion. [...]
HUNT: Gimme an idea of how large yours will be?
RYAN: A lot. Let’s put it that way.
HUNT: Pardon me?
RYAN: Now I can’t give you the specific numbers because we’re still waiting for some numbers back from CBO. But clearly we don’t want to have this kind of run up of deficits and debt.
Watch it:
As ThinkProgress previously noted, Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) also stumbled and refused to offer a number when questioned by MSNBC about the deficit under the GOP plan.
Citizens for Tax Justice analyzed the income tax provisions of the GOP alternative budget and concluded that they would cost $300 billion more annually than the President’s income tax plans.
Ryan’s refusal to provide a deficit number only reinforces the statement made by OMB Director Peter Orszag that Republicans have gone from “the party of ‘no’ to the party of ‘no detail.’”
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No substance is more like it.
The party of Corporafornication wants to lower taxes for the wealthy (zero capital gains) and coporations (25% corporate income tax). Ryan can’t even run the numbers on his plan. Stratospheric deficits?
March 30th, 2009 at 3:34 pmTheir calculators don’t work any better than their voting machines.
March 30th, 2009 at 3:39 pmAren’t Republicans just supposed to lie when they don’t know the answer? Could this be considered a “baby step”?
March 30th, 2009 at 3:39 pmpresident obama has been in white house for couple of months and they all want him to job that fast. wow, those republican and other suckers was in white house 8 years and they gave deficit too high which a record in usa histroy.
March 30th, 2009 at 3:40 pmLOL! Can’t wait to hear the details of the GOP budget due to the public on April Fools Day! GOP, the gift that just keeps on giving.
March 30th, 2009 at 3:40 pmEmpty. Void. Nil. Nothing. And yet, they grab all the headlines on all the channels. Does the public even know what the Obama budget includes? When the President described the details in his press conference, the media called it a big yawn, and way too professorial. A teacher (!!?) wrote to the NYT today saying we need have no knowledge-based curricula in schools because knowledge is so big and so available outside schools. This is the kind of knowledge he meant?
March 30th, 2009 at 3:41 pmelimate all taxes and let everyone fein for themselves.
that is true democracy.
jack you are on your own.
especially eliminate the taxes of the top one per cent.how can we have a society of haves and have nots unless we do this.
also we need to invade north k and iran. that would stimulate our economy like the second world war did.
this is how the everage right wing repub thinks. few will understand my words but it appears that repubs are not that advanced in soul development.
they see the world different and even call people that disagree with them insects. during the vietnam war we called the vietnamese gooks to dehumanize them so we had no regret for killing one million of them including women and children.
look how we have changed iraqi society with 4 million displaced and find me some americans that have lost any sleep over that.
we keep the iraqi gov locked to protect them from their own people and call the war a success. welcome to american mentality.
March 30th, 2009 at 3:42 pmCitizens for Tax Justice analyzed the GOP alternative budget and concluded that it would cost $300 billion more annually than the President’s plan, and found it is based primarily on making the Bush tax cuts permanent and cutting other taxes.
This is the clincher to me. Every right-wing person that won’t shut their mouth about the President’s spending and about ‘fiscal responsibility’ in general see that there is nothing to it. They’ve created such successful messaging about being against ‘big governement’ that people won’t even see, or hardly even discuss it on Fox News, etc.
I’m sure the thinking is that they would just completely dismantle more government services for the public. But hey, who needs healthcare, access to education, safe roads and water when rich people can pay almost $100,000 less on their taxes?
March 30th, 2009 at 3:44 pmThe fact no Republican wants to admit to is that they screwed things up soooooooo badly that even if they were still in control the addition to the deficit would be pretty much the same. The President is not pulling numbers from his butt (unlike his predecessor) and fixing our economy is going to be expensive…period.
March 30th, 2009 at 3:46 pmI’m neith a rocket scientist nor a nobel prize winning economist, but I do understand that any proposed budget that begins with “tax cuts” is bound to be deficit heavy. But they still don’t have the numbers for the budget they’re presenting on Wednesday, April Fool’s Day.
And we know it won’t include anything frivilous like healthcare or energy independence.
PEACE
March 30th, 2009 at 3:49 pmdoes the RNC issue shovels to these guys before they let them on TV?
“hole’s comin’ along great guys – keep up the hard work!!”
March 30th, 2009 at 3:50 pmQ: “How much did civil liberties get eroded by the past administration?”
A: “A lot. Let’s put it that way.”
March 30th, 2009 at 3:51 pmHELP!! HELP!! TEH STUPID IS COMING!!! TEH STUPID IS COMING!!!
Good grief.
March 30th, 2009 at 3:51 pmGawd repugs!
It doesn’t work…your plan didn’t work the first time and it won’t work the second time. IDIOTS!
you repugs don’t have anything but adding more zeros to the deficit.
the club of zeros/nothing/null
March 30th, 2009 at 3:54 pmI wonder if they will try to hide the war expenditures by not including them in the budget, like the previous administration did.
March 30th, 2009 at 3:57 pmBoehner looked like such an idiot when he held up his little 18 page binder proclaiming: Here is our budget, Mr. President! Maybe an adult should have spoken up and stopped him. Oh wait, Boehner IS the adult in that group. So sad.
March 30th, 2009 at 4:02 pmOne has to Love the way Republican’ts deal with numbers. If their numbers are bad, don’t include any numbers! It’s Magic! Pay no attention to the Communist/Fascist/Socialist/Marxist/Satanist President; His numbers are Bad! Our numbers are Much Better! In fact, we’ve got No Numbers at all! Republican politics, their policies are In-Sane!!!!
March 30th, 2009 at 4:06 pmSo it’s official…the MSM and Corps and the Repugs are all in bed together.
How else would you explain to me why the REPUBLICANS keep getting all the attention when not in power???
How else would you explain the media not calling out the republicans for there lies, lack of leadership, maintaining the party line even in major defeet?
Why tax cut after tax cut after tax cut???? Corporate masters need a blow hard ….Repugs.
There are the media lies, corporite lies , and repug lies and then there is the STREET where our world seems to be VERY DIFFERENT then the lies the media, corp and repugs spew on there best days. Never mind the worst days.
IN OTHER WORDS…SAY IT LIKE IT IS….WE WANT THE AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS TO PAY ALL THE TAXES, CORPS AND RICH PAY NOTHING. YOU GET NOTHING FOR LIVING IN THIS COUNTRY EXCEPT THE OPPERTUNITY TO WORK IF YOU WORK FOR HARDLY NOTHING AND DON’T TAKE ANY DAYS OFF AND BEG FOR HEALTH CARE WHERE i GET TO PAY FOR IT THE REST OF MY LIFE WHILE IN BANKRUPTCY BECUASE I GOT SICK.
GOD BLESS THE U.S.A. …..ERRRRRRRRRR
How many have gotten angered by reading this post????
It’s time to call the MSM and blow some steem off. HOW DARE THEY WASTE OUR TIME WITH INTERVIEWS THAT PRODUCE NOTHING!!!
IN OTHER WORDS….WHERE ARE THE NUMBERS???? DON’T HAVE THEM…WHAT IDIOT DOES A BUDGET WITHOUT NUMBERS????
THE REPUBLICANS DO …..F***EN IDIOTS!!
March 30th, 2009 at 4:09 pmThey’re a gag gift. A whoopie cushion. A pull my finger joke.
March 30th, 2009 at 4:10 pmwhen they do finally pull this unicorn of a budget out of Newt’s butt, it’s going to represent the greatest example of Idiot Math ever imagined. Steve Forbes will write them a special letter of Flat Tax Commendation, and Grover norquist will send John Boehner an engraved, commemorative shotgun.
March 30th, 2009 at 4:10 pmI am not a Nobel winning economist either but a 14 % tax over ten years should cost a ton of money. That’s 10% added onto the 4% of Bush’s which cost 1.7 Trillion over 10 years and is set to expire in 2010. Seems to me the dunderheads that makeup the repug party are all intellectually on a level with Palin and Bachman
March 30th, 2009 at 4:13 pmArt Says:
I wonder if they will try to hide the war expenditures by not including them in the budget, like the previous administration did.
That should be the first thing any good reporter looks at. If this promised GOP budget doesn’t include the war expenditures, reporters should shout it from the rooftops!
March 30th, 2009 at 4:19 pmAll the years the Republicans did nothing regarding a budget or to restrict Bush as he increased the deficit so much, and now they want one. Now all of the sudden they want fiscal accounting from the Democrats, and no real plan of their own. They really are pathetic.
Actually both parties stink. It just so happens that the Republicans are worse. No, no, no, no. This is all they can say at any given time.
March 30th, 2009 at 4:20 pmButButBut! It cuts taxes for the poorest of the billionaires!
March 30th, 2009 at 4:25 pmI hope someone laughed in his face. How can anyone who cares about being re-elected appear and make such absurd statements in public? They’re self-destructing.
March 30th, 2009 at 4:29 pmRepublican enablers gave Bush a blank check to run up the largest national debt EVER in our history. What short memories these charlatans have.
GOP: Party of Blank Checks and Looking the Other way. Party of NO: No ideas, No creativity, No intelligence, No business being in public office.
March 30th, 2009 at 4:30 pm#22: That’s why we have NO “real” journalists left. No one was willing to stand up to the obvious fraud which Bush and his Rep. Congress perpetuated through “smoke and mirrors” budgets. What a sham.
March 30th, 2009 at 4:32 pm“I’m confident we can work with Congress to come up with an economic stimulus package that will send a clear signal to the risk takers and capital formators of our country.” —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Sept. 17, 2001
“My plan reduces the national debt, and fast. So fast, in fact, that economists worry that we’re going to run out of debt to retire.” —George W. Bush, radio address, Feb. 24, 2001
The above quotes are for a bit of perspective, they aren;t intended as real zingers in this context.
But the fact that the GOP can’t seem to come up with a completely fictional or merely disingenuous number (consider the continued separation of ‘Iraq war supplementals’ from the DoD budget when the ‘emergency’ was clearly over, for example) suggests they don’t what figure they might be able to convincingly bullsh!t about.
Their confusion may have to do with the utterly failed free-market/deregulation/tax-cut dogma they’ve touted for 30 years, to which which they are politically, intellectually and technically incapable of formulating an alternative.
( sorry, clumsy sentence. translation they can’t even come up with a lie).
March 30th, 2009 at 4:32 pm#17 That’s why the prerequisite for entering congress as a Repuke is a “kindergarten diploma”. They’re a gang of morons and slick evildoers.
March 30th, 2009 at 4:33 pmWhen will these jokers finally be laughed off the stage? These media stunts are getting absurd, and they’re always devoid of any actual content. No numbers in a budget outline and when they finally give an estimate it’s “a lot.” What’s your alternative? Where’s the beef?
Hopefully–sans these jokers–we can turn this economy around and actually focus on solving the deeper, systemic issues for why we’re in this situation. Obviously bad banking’s a good place to start, but there are other issues, like global poverty, that have huge economic and geopolitical ramifications.
The Borgen Project (www.borgenproject.org) has some interesting insight into addressing the issues of global poverty, something we can remedy easily and sustainably.
Some interesting figures to ponder:
March 30th, 2009 at 4:35 pm$30 billion USD: The annual shortfall to end global poverty.
$550 billion USD: The annual US defense budget.
Paul Ryan is my house rep. What joker this one is. Can’t wait to see their numbers and I hear Paul Ryan wrote the budget. Double digit unemployment in all three of the cities he represents and he turns down stimulus money.
March 30th, 2009 at 4:35 pmThe RNC is all but dead right now. They have no leader; no official representative who is not a laughingstock, charlatan or buffoon.
With idiots like these so willing to come before us and out themselves for the jacka$$es whom they are, we need do nothing but sit back, pop the popcorn, and watch them self-destruct.
By Summer, there will be no standing republican left with any reputation other than the one they’re inflicting upon themselves: Incompetent & Totally Irrelevant.
March 30th, 2009 at 4:35 pmWhat’s more, the whackos who permit them to appear on their programs are beginning to look just as pathetic as the blabbering idiots of the RNC.
“A person is judged by the company they keep” which means that there are very few serious journalists out there right now. CNN is finished. Fox News Cabal is totally discredited. MSNBC is the only programming worth watching.
March 30th, 2009 at 4:37 pmThe GOP has finally become what they’ve always dreaded – A PUNCH LINE.
March 30th, 2009 at 4:38 pmAren’t these the same “ass-clowns” who didn’t ass the Iraq war funding to the national debt??
March 30th, 2009 at 4:39 pmCan’t wait to see those numbers on Wendesday! Assuming they have numbers.
March 30th, 2009 at 4:39 pmUm- did it not occur to them that this question might be asked at some point? How does this catch them off guard?
March 30th, 2009 at 4:40 pm“Rep. Paul Ryan Concedes GOP Alternative Budget Would Increase The Deficit ‘A Lot’”
This is certainly a neverending soap opera of The Party of No. Yup, no substance and no detail from a clueless political party. I look forward to part deux of the budgetless budget plan by The Artist: Formerly known as the Republican Party.
March 30th, 2009 at 4:43 pmMarch 30th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Ya know, there was a time when people like this wouldn’t have been allowed on the t.v. box.
March 30th, 2009 at 4:45 pmHow come that Borgen guy claims to have lived on a boat in Dutch Harbor but never claims to have worked on a boat in Dutch Harbor? Just wondering…
March 30th, 2009 at 4:51 pmThe GOP is so stupid that they’ve painted themselves in a one-way corner when they were getting by with nothing but mindless criticism of Obama. The moment they promised a detailed alternative budget, the expectations were set.
http://www.political-buzz.com/
March 30th, 2009 at 4:54 pmNOLIES cheers mate! I saw your response to me on the other thread–I’m totally sympathetic. There are lots more real f***in idiots out there.
Please pace yourself. :D my sincere regards to you.
And now for something completely different….
(cheers!)
March 30th, 2009 at 4:59 pmWhile speaking of the GOP non-budget “budget alternative,” check out their poster boy Ian Dobbins (page 7) who said a governmental hack was going to let him die by rejecting the experimental drug he needed.
Guess what? His experimental drug therapy was approved in ONE MONTH. He got his drugs. He got his chemo. He got his bone marrow transplant and it probably cost less than what I pay annually in copay for one drug!
Read about Ian Dobbin and how the GOP is full of crapola! (Again.)
March 30th, 2009 at 6:08 pmDoes that $300 billion more annually include the cost of Iraq and Afghanistan? The Republican Budget doesn’t.
March 30th, 2009 at 6:44 pmThe GOP cannot give any numbers to their pseudo-budget proposals, because once they took off their socks and shoes, they lost count.
March 30th, 2009 at 6:46 pmIt’s amazing how the GOP can’t give figures for their alternative budget? One thing is for sure they would cut taxes on the elite and the GOP will plunge the US into another war. They will protect the rich and place the burden on the rest of the US working class again thus creating a whole lot of working poor people. The GOP is a bunch of hypocrites and brainwashes.
March 30th, 2009 at 8:21 pmHow can the budget office produce an estimate of the debt without seeing hard numbers in the repub budget ?
March 31st, 2009 at 12:31 am.
G(no)P
.
March 31st, 2009 at 2:27 amEddie Munster is all grown up and scarier than ever
March 31st, 2009 at 11:04 amHere are some numbers which would occur with Rep. Ryan’s approach to democratic taxation.
March 31st, 2009 at 2:04 pmIn 2008, the average CEO of one of America’s largest 800 companies made $3.3 million in salary and bonuses, $6.3 million in stock gains, and $3.2 million in “other compensation” for a total of $12.8 million. Under Ryan’s plan, the average CEO’s $6.5 million in paid income would drop from a marginal tax rate of 35% to 25% and his $6.3 million in stock gains would go from being taxed at 15% to being totally tax free. This tax change would save these CEO’s over $1.5 million every year.
A minimum wage worker, however, making around $15,000/year, would see no benefit at all from these proposed tax changes. They already only pay federal income taxes in the 10% marginal tax bracket, are unlikely to have any capital gains, and would thus see no change under the conservative budget plan.
Seems to me this type of plan was tried in the past. Let’s see there were the two Reagan recessions, the first Bush’s recession and now the second Bush’s recession. If Ryan’s plan was to be enacted he could have a recession to call his own.
What is wrong with you people? ? ? You act as if it is a popularity contest, while our nation begins to crumble. You act as if this is an episode of american idol, and not our country we”re talking about. THE DEMOCRATS ARE THE SAME AS REPUBLICANS! We can’t just vote on a ticket that is based on Rep/Dem vote for the best man/woman for the greater good of the country. The america I grew up in was not a socialist country it was never designed to be this way. Now I have seen socialist states around the world crumble in my short life. So why would I believe it would work here? This country was great once and it was built on hard work. Not on asking for handouts like the majority of european countries. Now I know all of you once, maybe as children, thought this was a great country, even if you hate it now for whatever reason. Try to remember the old america where people stood up for eachother if for no other reason than we were neighbors in the same land.
April 1st, 2009 at 9:27 pm