Guess who gets it in the neck in
Paul Ryan's budget.
House Budget Committee chief Paul Ryan's budget is full of ... no surprises. In his twisted, austerity-for-some-folks perspective, Americans of low and moderate income are the targets of the deepest budget cuts.
According to Richard Kogan at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities:
Some 69 percent of the cuts in House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s new budget would come from programs that serve people of limited means, our forthcoming report finds. These disproportionate cuts—which likely account for at least $3.3 trillion of the budget’s $4.8 trillion in non-defense cuts over the next decade—contrast sharply with the budget’s rhetoric about helping the poor and promoting opportunity.
CBPP concedes that its estimates are probably conservative:
• Health coverage—$2.7 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and subsidies to help people buy private insurance. If Ryan's plan were accepted, at least 40 million low- and moderate-income people would become uninsured by 2024.
• Food assistance—Food stamps, now known as SNAP, would be cut $137 billion over the next decade. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 3.8 million people would be forced off the program in 2014. And in 2019, the program would convert to a block grant with even deeper cuts.
• Help affording college—Pell Grants would be cut by as much as $125 billion by "freezing the maximum grant for ten years, cutting eligibility in various ways, and repealing all mandatory funding."
• Cuts in other mandatory programs—These add up to $385 billion from cuts in Supplemental Security Income, the school lunch and child nutrition programs, and the Earned Income and Child Tax Credit.
• Low-income discretionary programs—Cuts add up to about $250 billion on top of the budget caps and sequestration cut in 2011 Budget Control Act.
Heckuva job, Paul.