Ryan's Right Flank

[Geee]

American Spectator:

When Paul Ryan unveiled the House Republicans' budget proposal for fiscal 2013, many Democratic campaign strategists were ecstatic. A Politico headline blared, "For Democrats, GOP budget is Christmas in March." They eagerly anticipated some election-year demagoguery, accusing Republicans of "ending" Medicare and perhaps reprising images of Ryan pushing a wheelchair-bound old lady off a cliff.

 

The Ryan budget put many Republicans in a similarly festive mood. Compared to President Obama's fiscal blueprint, the House GOP plan reduces spending by more than $5 trillion, deficits by more than $3 trillion, taxes by $2 trillion, and the national debt by more than $1 trillion over the next decade. Over the longer term, it envisions a sustainable debt-to-GDP ratio and a solvent, consumer-based Medicare system.

 

But not all reactions fit neatly along party lines. There were Democrats who privately -- and in the case of liberal Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, quite publicly -- sympathized with the premium support model for Medicare. There were Republicans who feared tackling tough fiscal issues in an election year, perhaps preferring to take a Senate-style break from passing budgets at all.

 

Most surprising of all, however, was the pushback from fiscal conservatives who didn't think Ryan's budget went far enough. The Club for Growth opposed the proposal on the ground that it takes too long to balance the budget -- deficits aren't eliminated until 2040, nearly 30 years from now -- and waives most of the mandated spending cuts required by the failure of the supercommittee.

[Draggingtree]

http://www.american.com/

The American

Obama’s 2nd-term agenda? House Dems propose raising taxes by 40%, including on middle class

By James Pethokoukis

March 27, 2012, 10:11 am

Just what would President Barack Obama do in a second term if had maximum “flexibility”? Consider his first term: Even though Obama was elected along with huge Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, he didn’t really get everything he wanted in 2009 and 2010. If he had, the stimulus would’ve been twice as big, healthcare reform would’ve included a public option, and a cap-and-trade scheme would right now be killing America’s natural gas revolution in the cradle.

So what about a second term? Well, a new budget proposal from liberal House Democrats suggests what Obama’s “dream agenda” might be. And if Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget plan is the “Path to Prosperity,” the Congressional Progressive Caucus has offered the “Road to Ruin.”

Officially, the CPC calls the plan “The Budget for All” — and it’s all wrong. Sure, the proposal would theoretically cut the deficit from $1.1 trillion (7.0% of GDP) in 2012 to $180 billion (or 0.7% of GDP) in 2022. But the CPC would accomplish this feat entirely through massive and economy-crippling tax increases.

In 2012, the Congressional Budget Office projects Uncle Sam will spend 23.2% of GDP and take in 16.3% of GDP in tax revenue. In 2022, under the liberal CPC plan, spending would be 23.3% of GDP — a bit higher than the CBO forecast for 2012 — and revenue would be a sky-high 22.6% of GDP. In other words, spending would be 0.1 percentage point more and tax revenue would 6.3 points higher, or nearly 40%.

The “Budget for All” contains just about every sort of tax increase imaginable. It would, of course

allow the top-end Bush tax cuts to expire, as well as create five new tax brackets — 45%, 46%, 47%, 48%, and 49%