The Republicans Have a New Budget; the Middle Class, the Elderly and the Poor Have Been Chosen to Fund It

Paul Ryan has a new budget proposal that he says will balance the federal budget in ten years.  He presented it to the House this week; but first, he spoke about the high points with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday.  One of the main components of his new budget is the repeal of the ACA.

what eye thynk:   Paul, buddy, I know you hate the ACA, but the House has tried this 34 times already and it always fails.  The ACA is not going away.  The Supreme Court says so.  Even more importantly, the people say so.  Did you notice the election results last November?  The candidate who promised to repeal the ACA lost--big time.

Even Chris Wallace was amazed.  When he heard that Mr. Ryan's budget is based on the repeal of the ACA, he responded with an incredulous "Well, THAT'S not going to happen."  Mr. Ryan stared blankly for a moment--clearly that was not the response he expected-- before saying that we have to make tough choices and this is one of them.

A question for you, Mr. Ryan...Why do all the tough choices seem to involve de-funding Democratic supported programs?  Tax increases would appear to qualify as a "tough choice", but they're off the table. 

• John Boehner - "Obama got his tax increases." (Though, truthfully, these "increases" were only brought about by allowing W's tax breaks for the wealthy to expire. I'd call that a reversion, not an increase.)
• Mitch McConnell - "The tax issue is finished, over, completed.  That's behind us."
• Marco Rubio - The President needs to "abandon his obsession with raising taxes.

  

Thirty-four failed attempts to repeal the ACA would seem to indicate that THAT "issue is finished, over, completed",  "it is time to "abandon (our) obsession".  Instead, Paul Ryan makes its dissolution the basis of his latest budget proposal...and Republicans cheer.  Are we supposed to accept that anything passed by a Democratic majority is open to constant reassessment, while anything decided by a Republican vote is immutable?

Republicans voted to put an entire war on a credit card,  and now that the bill is due they have decided that the middle class, the elderly and the poor are solely responsible for its payment.

Everyone wants a balanced budget, and the only way we're going to get there is with a balanced approach--and that means putting spending cuts AND tax increases on the table.  Every leading economist agrees. Even a few fair-minded Republican Senators agree.  The Senate could pass a budget right now if the Republicans would stop their wasteful, self-indulgent use of the filibuster.   

The latest Pew Research Center poll shows that 76% of Americans favor a mix of spending cuts and tax increases to balance the budget.  Broken down by party, 90% of Democrats, 56% of Republicans and 76% of Independents want a mixed approach.  As John Boehner is fond of saying "The people have spoken". 

Mr. Ryan, you say we have to make some "tough choices".  Then convince your fellow Republicans to make one themselves:  choose to compromise. For the Republican Party, that may be the toughest choice of all.