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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
- 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
- Ryan Budget Takes Big Bite out of Food Stamps w/state data
March 22, 2012
Millions of people would lose part or all of their SNAP (food stamp) benefits under the Ryan budget.
- Chairman Ryan’s Call for “Welfare Reform, Round Two” Ignores Inconvenient Facts About Round One
March 21, 2012
Since a safety net is supposed to help people during times of economic need, the true measure of success is how it does during the worst of times, not the best of times. And, 15 years after Congress enacted welfare reform, we can see clearly that it is not the resounding success that Chairman Ryan claims.
- 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
- Ryan Budget’s Claim to Finance Its Tax Cuts For the Wealthy by Curbing Their Tax Breaks Does Not Withstand Scrutiny
March 22, 2012
Despite warning that the nation faces the “perils of debt,” Chairman Ryan introduced a budget on March 20 whose tax proposals would be extremely costly and would disproportionately favor the nation’s highest-income households and large corporations.
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