Radical Ryan and Beyond Radical BeeLine

President Obama is in full attack mode.  One day he is taking on the Supreme Court.  The next day it is Paul Ryan and the House Republican budget.  

I thought that this video was particularly telling as it shows that the President's speechwriters have not even bothered to update the attacks on Ryan and the House budget since last year.   You would think that a year later that they could come up with some better talking points.  This shows that he is not only the "Teleprompter President" but he should be called the "Cut and Paste President" as well.

Keep in mind that President Obama is quick to criticize Ryan and the House Budget but the 2013 budget that he just submitted to Congress did not get one vote.  Not one Republican or Democrat voted for the Obama budget!  The final count was ZERO votes for Obama's 2013 budget plan and 414 votes AGAINST the White House plan.

This is a chart that comes directly from the Obama's 2013 Budget submission that shows the trajectory of publicly held debt under his proposal extended to the out years.

Is it any wonder he could not get even one Democrat to vote with him?

How radical is the Ryan House Budget?   After all, President Obama has described it as "a Trojan horse" that seeks to impose a radical vision" on the United States.  He called it "nothing but thinly veiled Social Darwinism" and "antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity and upward ability for everyone who's willing to work for it".

Hearing him speak you would think that the Ryan budget is cutting the social safety net and federal government spending with a meat cleaver.  What happens to federal spending between 2012 and 2022 under Ryan's plan?

Let's start with overall spending.

2012 Federal Outlays  $3.6 trillion

2022 Federal Outlays  $4.9 trillion

Average Annual Increase in Federal Spending +3.1%
Total Increase 2012-2022  +36.1%

What about Social Security?

2012 Federal Outlays $770 billion

2022 Federal Outlays $1.34 trillion

Average Annual Increase in Spending on Social Security +5.7%
Total Increase 2012-2022  +74.0%

What about Medicare?

2012 Federal Outlays $560 billion

2022 Federal Outlays $855 billion

Average Annual Increase in Medicare Spending +4.3%
Total Increase 2012-2022  +52.7%

What about Medicaid and Other Health Spending?

2012 Federal Outlays $287 billion

2022 Federal Outlays $402 billion

Average Annual Increase in Medicaid and Other Health Spending +3.4%
Total Increase 2012-2022  +40.1%

What about Discretionary Spending? (this includes Defense spending and most other government operational spending)

2012 Federal Outlays $1.300 trillion

2022 Federal Outlays $1.212 trillion

Average Annual Increase (Decrease) in Discretionary Spending -.7%
Total Decrease 2012-2022  -6.8%

Does this look anything like a radical plan?  It proposes overall spending restraint of slightly more than 3% per year.  That is restraint, not cuts.  The only area that real cuts are occurring (as a normal person would define it) are in the area of discretionary spending.  Bear in mind that about 2/3 of "discretionary spending" is for Defense.  

The Ryan budget actually does not balance the federal budget until 2035! Truly radical!

I proposed my 2.2.22 budget plan in an earlier post this year.  This plan simply states that we can balance the federal budget by 2022 if we constrain overall federal spending to no more than an annual 2.2% increase for the next 10 years.  This also assumes no changes in tax law using current tax revenue projections of the Congressional Budget Office.

Most people I talk to believe that providing the federal government with an additional 2.2% per year seems very reasonable.  This is particularly true when so many families are not getting close to that number in additional income increases in this economy.  If Ryan is radical then BeeLine must be beyond radical.  And I thought I was just being reasonable!