Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Budget — Federal

Response to Ryan’s Criticism of the Center’s Analysis

"We are quite disappointed that, in responding to our analysis of his budget plan, Rep. Paul Ryan accuses the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities of 'partisan demagoguery' as well as 'factual errors and misleading statements.' Quite the contrary, we applied the same rigorous analytical process to Rep. Ryan’s Roadmap for America’s Future that we do to every issue we study.... [W]e examined every one of Rep. Ryan’s complaints about our work, and not a single one withstands scrutiny." Read more

Radical Priorities in the Ryan Budget "Roadmap"

"The Roadmap for America’s Future, which Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) — the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee — released in late January, calls for radical policy changes that would result in a massive transfer of resources from the broad majority of Americans to the nation’s wealthiest individuals.

"The Roadmap would give the most affluent households a new round of very large, costly tax cuts… At the same time, the Ryan plan would raise taxes for most middle-income families, privatize a substantial portion of Social Security, eliminate the tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance, end traditional Medicare and most of Medicaid, and terminate the Children’s Health Insurance Program. The plan would replace these health programs with a system of vouchers whose value would erode over time and thus would purchase health insurance that would cover fewer health care services as the years went by.

"All in all, the Ryan Roadmap charts a radical course that, if they understood it, few Americans likely would want to follow."

Read more: Executive Summary (4pp.) | Full Analysis (17pp.)

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Topics

Basics

The federal budget outlines the U.S. government’s spending plans for the coming fiscal year and how it plans to pay for that spending. The three biggest areas of federal spending in 2007 were defense and security, Social Security, and public health insurance programs, each of which made up roughly one-fifth of the budget. About 75 percent of the money used to pay for these programs came from individuals, through income and payroll taxes. Most of the rest came from business owners, though 6 percent came from borrowing.

Policy Basics:
- Where Do Our Tax Dollars Go?
- Introduction to the Federal Budget Process
- Deficits, Debt, and Interest
- Congress's "Pay-As-You-Go" Budget Rule

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The Center informs the debate over federal budget priorities by analyzing the President’s budget and major congressional proposals throughout the annual budget process. We pay particular attention to the adequacy of funding for programs that assist low- and moderate-income families. We also analyze long-term budget challenges and measures to address them. In addition, we promote measures to improve fiscal responsibility.