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Ryan Roundup, 2012: Everything You Need to Know About Chairman Ryan's Budget

Below is a compilation of the CBPP blog posts to date on House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s new budget. Check back here frequently, as we will update this list as we put out new material. http://bit.ly/RyanPosts

Overview/General

    62% of Proposed Cuts in Ryan Plan Come from Low-Income Programs
  • Greenstein Statement
    March 21, 2012
    "The new Ryan budget is a remarkable document — one that, for most of the past half-century, would have been outside the bounds of mainstream discussion due to its extreme nature. In essence, this budget is Robin Hood in reverse — on steroids.  It would likely produce the largest redistribution of income from the bottom to the top in modern U.S. history and likely increase poverty and inequality more than any other budget in recent times (and possibly in the nation’s history)."
     
  • Low-Income Programs Would Bear the Brunt of Ryan Cuts March 23, 2012
    The Ryan budget would get at least 62 percent of its $5.3 trillion in nondefense budget cuts over ten years (relative to a continuation of current policies) from programs that serve people of limited means.
  • When Is a Deal Not a Deal?
    March 22, 2012
    With defense funding well above the Budget Control Act’s funding caps in coming years, and non-defense discretionary funding very far below those caps, the Ryan budget bears little resemblance to the bipartisan agreement reached last summer.

  • A First Look at the Ryan Budget
    March 20, 2012 The Ryan budget specifies a long-term spending path under which, by 2050, most of the federal government aside from Social Security, health care, and defense would cease to exist.

Health Care

  • Chairman Ryan and the Medicare Part D Myth
    March 21, 2012
    Chairman Ryan claims that his troubling proposal to convert Medicare into a premium support system would control costs and notes that the Medicare Part D drug benefit, which private insurers provide, has cost much less than the Congressional Budget Office expected.  But Part D’s reliance on private plans had nothing to do with its lower-than-expected costs.
  • Ryan’s Rx for Medicaid Would Add Millions to the Uninsured and Underinsured
    March 20, 2012
    The Ryan budget proposes to radically restructure Medicaid by converting it into a block grant and to slash federal funding by about one-fifth over the next decade.  All told, it would add tens of millions of Americans to the ranks of the uninsured and underinsured.
  • The Problems with the Ryan-Wyden Medicare Proposal
    March 19, 2012
    The Ryan-Wyden proposal would shift substantial costs to Medicare beneficiaries, likely lead to the gradual demise of traditional Medicare, and produce few budgetary savings.

Safety Net

  • The Massive Hidden Safety-Net Cuts in Chairman Ryan’s Budget
    March 21, 2012
    A key misunderstood element of the Ryan budget is its proposed cut in spending for non-discretionary programs other than Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other health programs.  There is no way to generate the budget’s required savings without extremely severe cuts in these programs, on which the most vulnerable Americans depend.

Taxes