Ryan's budget: A new year, a new accounting gimmick. "As usual, it's largely an orgy of cuts to safety net programs like Medicaid and food stamps. It would also dismantle the Affordable Care Act, because of course. And it would supposedly eliminate the deficit in about 10 years. So what makes this conservative fantasy budget different from all other conservative fantasy budgets? A new accounting gimmick -- this time in the form of miraculous economic growth....Nobody really has the predictive powers to foresee all those moving variables 10 years out. So when Ryan says that dramatically cutting the budget will spur X amount of growth, to some degree he's just picking a number out of a hat, while conveniently ignoring the possibility that slashing the welfare state might have some negative macroeconomic affects of their own. People need money to spend on food, after all." Jordan Weissmann in Slate.
CASSIDY: Ryan budget shows GOP stuck with head in rah-rah land. "Here's all you need to know about the G.O.P.'s effort to face reality, moderate its policies, and present a more coherent policy platform to voters in 2016. David Camp, the Michigan Republican who chairs the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, and who in February introduced a sweeping tax-reform plan that, at least, recognized the basic laws of arithmetic, is leaving Congress. Paul Ryan, the conservative Moses of Capitol Hill, is sticking around. On Wednesday, he unveiled the latest of his right-wing manifestos, thinly disguised as a serious budget, proposing to repeal Obamacare, privatize Medicare, and slash spending on Medicaid and food stamps. No, it wasn't an April Fool's joke. The Republican Party's reform effort, which was heralded by a March, 2013, internal report that said that the G.O.P. was trapped in 'an ideological cul de sac,' is over almost before it had begun. On issue after issue (gun control, immigration, gay marriage, Obamacare, climate change, unemployment benefits, the minimum wage), suggestions that the Party might revise its extreme positions have been stomped on. The ultras have won out. And nowhere is this more true than in the biggest policy area of all: taxes and spending." John Cassidy in The New Yorker.
Social safety-net programs: Big cuts and changes. "The plan assumes that lawmakers will repeal the 2010 health-care law, Obama's signature legislative initiative, while making substantial changes to U.S. safety net programs for the elderly and the poor. Ryan's proposal would revamp nutrition aid to the poor by converting food stamps in five years from a mandatory program that spends under a formula into block grants that would give states greater control over the money. The plan would end a program that links heating aid to additional food stamp spending. Those on minimal welfare assistance would no longer be categorically eligible for food stamps. The food stamp changes, which would set additional work or job-training requirements, would cut spending by $125 billion over 10 years."Derek Wallbank in Bloomberg.
Education: Pell grants would be frozen. "The maximum Pell Grant would be frozen at its current level for 10 years and would be financed with discretionary dollars only, rather than the current combination of mandatory and discretionary money. That change could make the program more vulnerable to future cuts, its advocates fear. The plan would also roll back recent expansions of the program, eliminate eligibility for less-than-half-time students, and end administrative payments to participating colleges. It suggests adding a maximum-income cap for students to receive a Pell Grant, though it doesn't propose a particular level."Kelly Field in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Health care: Budget plan would repeal Obamacare, transform Medicaid. "In all, Mr. Ryan said, spending would be cut by $5.1 trillion over the next decade. More than $2 trillion of that would come from repealing Mr. Obama's health care initiative, the Affordable Care Act, a political move that has become much more difficult with the closing of the first enrollment period. More than 10 million Americans have gotten health insurance through the law, either through private policies purchased on insurance exchanges, through expanded Medicaid or private policies purchased through brokers but subsidized by the law. As with past budget proposals, Mr. Ryan seeks to eliminate the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion, a $792 billion retrenchment, then turn the health care program for the poor into block grants to the states -- saving an additional $732 billion over the decade." Jonathan Weisman in The New York Times.
Defense spending would get ramped up. "House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan laid out a budget vision Tuesday that goes beyond President Obama's request by ramping up defense spending beyond the caps in 2016 and restoring them by 2017. Ryan does this by taking from the nondefense side of the ledger and still reducing overall federal spending beyond what is contemplated under the total sequester caps. 'This budget rejects the president's cuts to national security....It also keeps faith with the veterans who have served and protected the nation,' declares the Ryan budget, which increases defense spending above what President Obama has called for by $273 billion over the 10-year budget window....Unsurprisingly, the Wisconsin Republican's budget, like Obama's, sticks to the defense spending caps agreed to under last year's Bipartisan Budget Act of $521 billion for discretionary spending for fiscal 2015." Stacy Kaper in National Journal.
Social safety-net programs: Big cuts and changes. "The plan assumes that lawmakers will repeal the 2010 health-care law, Obama's signature legislative initiative, while making substantial changes to U.S. safety net programs for the elderly and the poor. Ryan's proposal would revamp nutrition aid to the poor by converting food stamps in five years from a mandatory program that spends under a formula into block grants that would give states greater control over the money. The plan would end a program that links heating aid to additional food stamp spending. Those on minimal welfare assistance would no longer be categorically eligible for food stamps. The food stamp changes, which would set additional work or job-training requirements, would cut spending by $125 billion over 10 years."Derek Wallbank in Bloomberg.
Education: Pell grants would be frozen. "The maximum Pell Grant would be frozen at its current level for 10 years and would be financed with discretionary dollars only, rather than the current combination of mandatory and discretionary money. That change could make the program more vulnerable to future cuts, its advocates fear. The plan would also roll back recent expansions of the program, eliminate eligibility for less-than-half-time students, and end administrative payments to participating colleges. It suggests adding a maximum-income cap for students to receive a Pell Grant, though it doesn't propose a particular level."Kelly Field in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Health care: Budget plan would repeal Obamacare, transform Medicaid. "In all, Mr. Ryan said, spending would be cut by $5.1 trillion over the next decade. More than $2 trillion of that would come from repealing Mr. Obama's health care initiative, the Affordable Care Act, a political move that has become much more difficult with the closing of the first enrollment period. More than 10 million Americans have gotten health insurance through the law, either through private policies purchased on insurance exchanges, through expanded Medicaid or private policies purchased through brokers but subsidized by the law. As with past budget proposals, Mr. Ryan seeks to eliminate the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion, a $792 billion retrenchment, then turn the health care program for the poor into block grants to the states -- saving an additional $732 billion over the decade." Jonathan Weisman in The New York Times.
Defense spending would get ramped up. "House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan laid out a budget vision Tuesday that goes beyond President Obama's request by ramping up defense spending beyond the caps in 2016 and restoring them by 2017. Ryan does this by taking from the nondefense side of the ledger and still reducing overall federal spending beyond what is contemplated under the total sequester caps. 'This budget rejects the president's cuts to national security....It also keeps faith with the veterans who have served and protected the nation,' declares the Ryan budget, which increases defense spending above what President Obama has called for by $273 billion over the 10-year budget window....Unsurprisingly, the Wisconsin Republican's budget, like Obama's, sticks to the defense spending caps agreed to under last year's Bipartisan Budget Act of $521 billion for discretionary spending for fiscal 2015." Stacy Kaper in National Journal.
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