Paul Ryan’s Budget Right for America

I guess I’m a few days late in posting my response to an email I received from Congressman Paul Ryan’s office last week, but then again, I’m really late on posting anything these days. Seems that in response to the Democrat Party budget that will include the LARGEST TAX INCREASE IN AMERICAN HISTORY, ranking Budget Committee Republican and Wisconsin’s favorite son, Rep. Paul Ryan, has decided to put forth his own budget plan.

From his release, “Ryan’s federal budget plan reaches balance in 2012 without raising taxes, while ending Washington’s raid on Social Security and promoting policy tools to strengthen budget enforcement.”

Interesting to note, this is the exact type of budget we Republicans expected our leadership to present while they were actually in control of Congress, rather than refusing to support party conservatives like Ryan and instead give us the bloated, borrow-and-spend budgets that ushered in Democrat control in the first place. Perhaps if Paul Ryan had been Budget Committee chairman in the last term, Republicans would still have the majority.

“Since entering Congress, I’ve been fighting to stop the raid on Social Security surpluses, and the budget I wrote does that, while at the same time controlling spending and preventing job-killing tax hikes,” Ryan said. “Washington doesn’t have a revenue problem. It has an overspending problem, and any lasting solution must rein in the growth of government spending and make government more accountable for the tax dollars it spends.”

While the Democrats are pushing for LARGEST TAX INCREASE IN AMERICAN HISTORY, Wisconsin citizens should rightfully be scared. According to Ryan’s release, “For more than 2 million Wisconsin taxpayers this would mean an average tax hike of $2,964.”

For those keeping track at home, that’s another $3,000 kick in the pants for Wisconsin taxpayers, on top of the almost $2 billion in tax hikes our state’s Democrats are trying to stick our citizens with as well.

The Heritage Foundation has this to say:

The budget blueprint reported out of the House Budget Committee last week and supported by Democratic leadership is a study in fiscal irresponsibility. Coming on the heels of a campaign season in which Democrats slammed Republicans’ profligacy, the House budget resolution boosts discretionary spending, does nothing to tackle out-of-control entitlement spending, and, worst of all, would impose the largest tax increase ever on the American people. The shortcomings of this budget are thrown into relief by a substitute proposal made this week by Representative Paul Ryan, ranking member of the House Budget Committee, and House Republicans.

Our friends at FreedomWorks also expressed their support of the Ryan Budget:

“On behalf of nearly 850,000 FreedomWorks members nationwide, I write to urge you to VOTE YES on the GOP FY2008 Budget Alternative, introduced by Budget Committee Ranking Member Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

As you know, the Democrat majority has offered a budget that if passed will lead to a $400 billion tax increase over the next 5 years. This shift away from common sense budget restraint would mark the largest tax increase in U.S. history. This budget allows current tax cuts to expire by 2010, amounting to a tax increase, and would not extend AMT tax relief even for a one year patch. Included in their litany of tax hikes are $13 billion in Marriage Penalties, $91 billion in Death Taxes, and $27 billion as a result of a 50% reduction of the Child Tax Credit.”

And columnist Bob Novak wrote the obvious:

Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the fifth-termer who is the House Budget Committee’s new ranking Republican, has proposed an alternative resolution. It not only retains Bush tax cuts but also proposes deep reductions in spending, protects Social Security payments and runs down the national debt.

Why was no such resolution advanced during the 12 years the GOP was in the majority? Would the party’s leadership support the Ryan resolution if it were in control now? That those questions must be asked undermines Republican credibility and explains why Democrats dare return to tax, spend and elect.