Welcome Budget-Cut Talk

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Human Events:

Finally. A serious budget plan. House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan's proposal has the head-in-the-sand crowd horrified. A Washington Post columnist called it "radical ... irresponsible ... extreme."

Ryan's plan offers some great things: less spending than President Obama wants; a path to a balanced budget; repeal of Obamacare; an end to corporate welfare. And it would make the social safety net sustainable rather than open-ended and going broke.

It even inspired President Obama to say he'd come out with his own deficit plan, although he reportedly "will not offer details," just "goals." And of course his plan will "raise revenues." That means more taxes. Ryan's plan is better.



Scott Garrett of New Jersey, who worked on Ryan's plan, told me last week, "We want to be able to make sure that the programs that people rely on today will actually be there tomorrow."

Ryan's "roadmap to prosperity" lays out $6.2 trillion in cuts over the next 10 years -- not, sadly, cuts from what government spends today, but from what President Obama wanted to spend. Spending would actually increase by about a trillion dollars over the decade.

Garrett is chairman of the Republican Study Committee, which proposes more cuts than Ryan. Its plan would actually cut spending by about $300 billion and end the deficit in eight years -- [AZ2]Ryan's plan wouldn't balance the budget until 2050 or 2080. I asked what the RSC cuts that Ryan doesn't.