Here are the main numbers to focus on when discussing Paul Ryan’s Path to Prosperity budget for 2012 and ten-year spending blueprint:
- The plan cuts $6.2 trillion in spending pver tje mext decade relative to President Obama’s 2012 budget and cuts $5.8 trillion relative to the current-policy baseline.
- It achieves $4.4 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade compared to the president’s 2012 budget, exceeding the Bowles-Simpson Commission recommendations.
- Non-security discretionary spending is brought below 2008 levels.
- Federal spending is brought back to 20 percent of GDP, roughly its historic level, and drops to 15 percent by 2050.
- Reduces the national debt by $4.7 trillion relative to the president’s budget and pays the debt off over time.
- Stops the $800 billion in new taxes imposed by the health care law, which the budget repeals and defunds, and $1.5 trillion in tax increases anticipated by 2012 Obama budget.
- Lowers the top corporate and individual income tax rates to 25 percent.
The main number liberals seem to be focusing on? The $4 trilion in deficit reduction, which they (statically) project is equal to the Bush tax cuts. Remember that golden oldie? When the Gingrich Congress proposed Medicare reforms that would yield $270 billion in savings, liberals compared it to the size of the $245 billion tax cut.
