Congressman Paul Ryan on The President's Lack of A Budget

I read an excellent opinion piece in the Wall St. Journal by Rep. Paul Ryan from Wisconsin.  Even though he passes the blame off on the Democrats, President Obama, and Congress, Rep. Ryan makes some accurate assessments on how healthcare spending could potentially force the United States government into an irreversible bankruptcy.  Mr. Ryan serves as chairman of the House Budget Committee, which is responsible for writing the overall budget plan for the year and reviewing all bills and resolutions to the budget.  Here’s a few soundbites from his article.

On the Democrats

“Ever since they abused the budget process to jam their healthcare takeover through Congress last year, the Democrats have simply done away with serious budgeting altogether.”

“The president and his party’s leaders have refused to submit specific, credible budget plans that tackle health-care costs while restoring economic growth.  Unwilling to reconsider their failed bureaucratic approaches to health and retirement security, the Democrats can only propose tax increases, and lots of them”

On President Obama

“Since then (February), he has offered a lot of rhetoric but no real plan to avoid a spending-driven debt crisis.  His speeches and press conferences are no substitutes for actual budgets with specific numbers and independently verified projections of future deficits and debt.”

“Even the president seems to understand that the status quo of these (healthcare) programs is unsustainable.  As he put it during a press conference on July 11, ‘If you look at the numbers, then Medicare in particular will run out of money, and we will not be able to sustain that program no matter how much taxes go up.’  On this point, Mr. Obama and I couldn’t agree more.  Where we disagree is over how best to confront this problem.”

On Congress

“Even though Congress has cut spending by a significant amount, it still hasn’t dealt with the drivers of our debt- primarily federal spending on health care.  The math is scary, yet simple: In the years ahead, spending on programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and the Democrat’s new health care entitlements is projected to skyrocket relative to the size of the economy, even as federal spending on everything else is projected to decline.”

On alternatives to the Healthcare Bill

“There is a better way-structural reforms that empower patients with greater choices and increase the role of competition in the health-care marketplace.”

On The Relationship between Federal Revenues and Costs

“The Congressional Budget Office’s latest Long-Term Outlook in June estimated that total tax revenues would have to double by mid-century in order to finance our current spending path.”