Rep. Paul Ryan continues his "messaging" campaign to scare America into agreeing with him.
Rep. Paul Ryan will introduce the House Republican's budget today, the budget that breaks last year's debt ceiling deal and potentially threatens another government shutdown stand-off. The plan
slashes both corporate tax rates and government spending.
On the tax side, it would reduce the current six tax brackets down to two, at 25 percent and 10 percent. The current top marginal rate is 35 percent. It would also bring down the top corporate income tax rate to 25 percent and "virtually eliminate taxes on corporate profits brought back from overseas."
On the cuts side, it will slash trillions over the next 10 years, focused almost entirely on domestic spending and spare the defense cuts the House agreed to last year in passing the debt deal. It would enact about $18.3 billion in cuts in the first year, with cumulative cuts of $116 billion over ten years and somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 trillion a decade out. Just what the faltering economic recovery needs.
The outlines — described to POLITICO by people familiar with the plan — indicate that food stamps, farm subsidies, federal workers and health care programs are all likely targets. And the House Judiciary Committee, which is charged with coming up with nearly $40 billion in 10-year savings, will use this opportunity to pursue medical liability reform legislation. [...]
The Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid and major pieces of the president’s health care reform, is charged with coming up with the greatest savings: $96.76 billion. The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, with broad impact on federal workers and their retirement system, is next with a 10-year target of $78.9 billion. And the Ways and Means Committee, which oversees Medicare, is asked to find $53 billion with no expectation of taxes being part of the solution.
It's a purely political exercise, which will be dead on arrival in the Senate. That would be true even if it didn't also end Medicare as we know it and slash taxes for the wealthy. Which is the usual for Republicans, but it's interesting that they're being just so blatant about it in an election year, having already been burned on the Medicare issue.