The following statement from the House leadership and Rep. Paul Ryan sure makes it sound like at least elements of Ryan’s Roadmap for America’s Future will be part of the FY2012 budget process:
The American people are ready to get serious about tackling our fiscal challenges, but President Obama’s budget fails to lead. The President’s budget punts on entitlement reform and actually makes matters worse by spending too much, taxing too much, and borrowing too much – stifling job growth today and threatening our economic future.
The President says that he wants to win the future, but we can’t win the future by repeating the mistakes of the past or putting off our responsibilities in the present. Our budget will lead where the President has failed, and it will include real entitlement reforms so that we can have a conversation with the American people about the challenges we face and the need to chart a new path to prosperity. Our reforms will focus both on saving these programs for current and future generations of Americans and on getting our debt under control and our economy growing. By taking critical steps forward now, we can fulfill the mission of health and retirement security for all Americans without making changes for those in or near retirement. We hope the President and Democratic leaders in Congress will demonstrate leadership and join us in working toward responsible solutions to confront the fiscal and economic challenges before us.
Stephen Hayes notes that this inclusion in the FY2012 budget, due out of Ryan’s committee near the end of March, is a victory for Ryan and the freshmen. Even better, there’s rumors that the Senate Republicans will follow suit. Of course, Senate Democrat/Majority leader Harry Reid won’t let that see the light of day, but that will just show the difference between the off-the-cliff Democrats and the stop-the-madness Republicans.
As for the timing, need I remind people that, at least on a combined basis, Social Security will never run a cash surplus on its current trajectory again, or that the only reason the remainder of Medicare isn’t following the Hospital Insurance (Part A) into the black hole is that their funding mechanisms automatically increase the taxes, fees, and draws from the Treasury?
