The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Obama vs. GOP Alternative

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After last week's fiasco in which Republicans released an alternative budget blueprint without any numbers, Rep. Ryan today provided a glimpse of how the GOP alternative, to be released in full tomorrow, would stack up against the Obama budget. The chart below looks at the long-term debt as a percentage of GDP from now until 2080. President Obama's budget itself extends through 2019, and the rest of the sharp red line that sails off the chart is based on CBO projections. Looking at the chart, it seems that debt would still grow under the GOP plan over the next decade, but would hover in the low 60s as a percent of GDP, as opposed to the Obama plan, which would bring it to 82.4 percent by 2019, according to the CBO. Ryan didn't offer more details in remarks today (see video below), but he promised, "a budget that is lower on spending, that is lower on deficits, that is lower on taxes, that is lower on debt and higher on jobs."

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Bob| 3.31.09 @ 8:02PM

This is funny. They take an unscored budget, hype it up beyond the endpoint, and try to make a point. They only way you can achieve this kind of budget is to cut Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. The Republicans are making a strategic error here because once people understand what went into this number, it will make them look like idiots.

They should have taken a "range" approach and outlined why the numbers turned out this way. Once CBO scores this, the number will rise dramatically and Ryan and others will look like fools. Isn't there anyone capable in the Republican party who understands strategy?