Congressman Tom Price (R-GA) made a startling admission on CNN’s Starting Point on Wednesday morning, telling host Soledad O’Brien that Republicans are not concerned about how they cut spending — or the millions of people who suffer as a result — so long as they achieve a balanced budget.

O’BREIN: [The President] said he doesn’t want balance for the sake of balance, that actually the wrong kinds of cuts that would be hurtful to people would be a problem. What do make of what he told George Stephanopoulos?

REP. PRICE: We believe it’s important to balance not the how of ‘how you balance,’ but the ‘why’, why is it important to balance. well it’s important to get our budget in balance, so that means that Washington doesn’t spend more money than it takes in, just like families can’t, just like businesses across this country can’t.

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The lack of concern over how Republicans are cutting some $5 trillion in spending is evident in the cuts they are planning to hand down to low-income families, young people, women and seniors, all of whom stand to lose significant protections under the Republicans’ balanced budget. Meanwhile, the Ryan budget likely maintains billions in tax savings for millionaires, Big Oil and financial conglomerates that will benefit from the proposed repeal of regulations imposed on Wall Street.

The comment provides a sharp contrast to President Obama’s competing vision for the federal budget. During an interview with Geroge Stephanopoulos, Obama argued that rushing to balance the budget during a recovery could undermine growth and significantly hurt the most vulnerable populations,” Obama said. “If we’ve controlled spending and we’ve got a smart entitlement package, then potentially what you have is balance. But it’s not balance on the backs of, you know, the poor, the elderly, students who need student loans, families who’ve got disabled kids. That’s not the right way to balance our budget.”

Throughout the fiscal cliff negotiations Republicans have insisted on preserving tax cuts for the richest 2 percent of Americans, but have dogmatically opposed maintaing a payroll tax holiday that disproportionately benefits the middle class. Payroll taxes fall harder on those lower down the income ladder and economists believe that allowing 2011′s 2-percent decrease to expire could undermine economic growth, while permitting the top rates to go up would have only minimal impact.

On Tuesday morning, during an appearance on SiriusXM’s POTUS Politics, Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) argued that raising marginal rates on the very rich would slow-down job creation but insisted that the nation’s debt problem requires the government to allow the payroll tax holiday to expire. Price said that individuals — presumably those who benefit most from the holiday — must feel “more pain” to help set the country on a sound fiscal footing:

TIM FARLEY (HOST): The payroll tax holiday is likely going away. People will likely get that increase in the deduction from your pay as of January 15, you’ll see your first paycheck, 2 percent will be gone. And I wonder if, even if you come to a solution…people are going to look at their paychecks and say, ‘I thought we solved this and look at all this money being taken out of my paycheck.

PRICE: Well, remember, step back and recognize that we’ve had four straight years of trillion dollar plus deficits, we’re $16 trillion plus dollars in debt. This doesn’t get fixed without some pain for everybody…The remarkable challenge that we have requires more work and more diligence and more pain for more individuals.

Listen:

Recent nonpartisan studies have shown that the Bush tax cuts for the rich — those on income above $250,000 — don’t boost the economy, while providing relief to lower and middle class Americans could significantly speed up the recovery. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), for instance, “Extending both the current 2 percentage-point cut in the payroll tax and emergency unemployment benefits…would boost real GDP by about three-quarters of a percent by the end of 2013.”

But unfortunately, the GOP is more interested in ideologically-driven policies that shrink government — and make “very painful cuts” to benefits — than growing the economy.

House Republican Policy Committee Chairman Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) isn’t ruling out supporting a deal to avert the fiscal cliff that increases tax rates on the richest Americans. During an appearance Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, Price reiterated the GOP’s opening offer of combining spending cuts with tax reform — closing loopholes and deductions — but in a change of tone for the party, did not directly dismiss President Obama’s proposal of raising taxes on the richest two percent of Americans:

PRICE: There is certainly room for negotiation on a real solution, and a real solution includes both revenue increases and spending reductions….That means broadening the base, limiting the deductions, limiting the credits, and making certain that we identify the appropriate spending reductions so that we have, indeed, a balanced approach.

CANDY CROWLEY (HOST): Okay, but we’re still at the place where everything gets hung up. no increases in tax rates. That is still the position of House Republicans, correct?

PRICE: We would be happy to look at that, if it solved the problem. The problem is it doesn’t solve the problem. We want a real solution, which means increasing tax revenue through pro-growth policies. [...]

CROWLEY: Can I just get sort of directly is that something that you all would do? It sounds to me like your answer is no because you don’t think it will work. Is that a correct translation of what you are saying?

PRICE: Tax increases to chase ever higher spending is a fool’s errand. What we need to do is have that balanced approach that we’ve all been talking about, which, again, is increasing revenues through a process of tax reform, and then spending reductions.

Watch it:

At Friday’s meeting between the White House and Congressional leaders, Democrats said that House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) “did not insist that his caucus would reject any rise in the top tax rates, as he has in the past” and Republican on the Hill seem to recognize that a balanced approach would require raising tax rates.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), who appeared on CNN alongside Price, agreed that the party is changing its tone. “What I hear is a perceptible change in rhetoric from the other side, and what it is is an invitation for our side to basically sit down and say what can we do for this country,” he said.

Seemingly ignoring that over than 3 million more Americans voted for President Obama than Mitt Romney on Tuesday, Congressional Republicans are moving quickly to embrace Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) call to adopt a tax “compromise” that is virtually identical to the tax proposal that Romney made the centerpiece of his failed campaign.

The running theme this week is what Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called the “Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale” that the country can increase revenues simply by lowering tax rates:

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA): On ABC’s This Week, Chambliss said, “Bowles-Simpson said, look, eliminate all these tax credits and tax deductions. You can generate somewhere 1 to 1.2 trillion in additional revenue. You can actually lower tax rates by doing that. And I think at the end of the day, what’s got to happen, George, we’ve got to get this economy going again.

Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK): In a Friday column, House Budget Committee member Cole wrote: “However, raising tax rates is not the only way to increase revenue, nor is it the best way. Speaker Boehner has proposed comprehensive tax reform to raise revenue and lower rates. Eliminating inefficient loopholes and deductions will generate economic growth while creating a simpler, fairer tax code.”

Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX): In a Wednesday Tweet, House Ways and Means Committee member Brady opined: “Stronger economic growth from tax reform that lowers rates and closes loopholes will generate higher revenue to bring the deficit down.

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA): In a letter to his Republican caucus, the House Majority Leader wrote: “What would be best is a fundamental reform of the tax code that lowers rates, broadens the base, makes America’s businesses competitive again, and reduces the burden imposed by taxes on work and investment.”

Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI): In a Wednesday press release, the House Ways and Means Chairman wrote: “There is a better path forward than simply increasing tax rates, and one in which both sides can claim victory. We can address both our jobs crisis and our debt crisis by focusing on tax reform that strengthens the economy. There is bipartisan support for tax reform that closes loopholes and lowers rates.”

Rep. Tom Price (R-GA): On Fox News Sunday, House Republican Policy Committee Chairman Price, a member of both the Ways and Means and Budget Committees, said “We can increase revenue without increasing the tax rates on anybody in this country.”

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says there will be no significant negative impact on the economy should the lower rates on the wealthiest Americans be allowed to expire. And the notion that lowering rates will magically create more revenue is indeed a right-wing pipe dream.