Paul Ryan Wants to Shut Down the Government, Permanently
Published on
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
by
CEPR Blog
Paul Ryan Wants to Shut Down the Government, Permanently
by
Dean Baker
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) could be the next Speaker of the House. (Photo: M.
Scott Mahaskey/Politico)
Everyone has seen the news stories about how Representative Paul Ryan, the
leading candidate to be the next Speaker of the House, is a budget wonk.
That should make everyone feel good, since we would all like to think a
person in this position understands the ins and outs of the federal budget.
But instead of telling us about how much Ryan knows about the budget (an
issue on which reporters actually don't have insight), how about telling us
what Ryan says about the budget?
It is possible to say things about Ryan says, since he has said a lot on
this topic and some of it is very clear. In addition to wanting to privatize
both Social Security and Medicare, Ryan has indicated that he essentially
wants to shut down the federal government in the sense of taking all of the
money for the non-military portion of the budget.
This fact is one that is easy to find if a reporter is willing to do five
minutes of research. Ryan directed the Congressional Budget Office to score
his budget plans back in 2012. The score of his plan showed the non-Social
Security, non-Medicare portion of the federal budget shrinking to 3.5
percent of GDP by 2050 (page 16).
This number is roughly equal to current spending on the military. Ryan has
indicated that he does not want to see the military budget cut to any
substantial degree. That leaves no money for the Food and Drug
Administration, the National Institutes of Health, The Justice Department,
infrastructure spending or anything else. Following Ryan's plan, in 35 years
we would have nothing left over after paying for the military.
Just to be clear, this was not some offhanded gaffe where Ryan might have
misspoke. He supervised the CBO analysis. CBO doesn't write-down numbers in
a dark corner and then throw them up on their website to embarrass powerful
members of Congress. As the document makes clear, they consulted with Ryan
in writing the analysis to make sure that they were accurately capturing his
program.
So what percent of people in this country know that the next Speaker of the
House would like to permanently shut down most of the government? What
percent even of elite educated policy types even know this fact? My guess is
almost no one, we just know he is a policy wonk.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
License
Dean Baker
Dean Baker is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research
(CEPR). He is the author of The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy
Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer and the more recently
published Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of The Bubble Economy. He
also has a blog, "Beat the Press," where he discusses the media's
Paul Ryan Wants to Shut Down the Government, Permanently
Published on
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
by
CEPR Blog
Paul Ryan Wants to Shut Down the Government, Permanently
by
Dean Baker
. 63 Comments
.
. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) could be the next Speaker of the House.
(Photo: M. Scott Mahaskey/Politico)
. Everyone has seen the news stories about how Representative Paul
Ryan, the leading candidate to be the next Speaker of the House, is a budget
wonk. That should make everyone feel good, since we would all like to think
a person in this position understands the ins and outs of the federal
budget. But instead of telling us about how much Ryan knows about the budget
(an issue on which reporters actually don't have insight), how about telling
us what Ryan says about the budget?
. It is possible to say things about Ryan says, since he has said a
lot on this topic and some of it is very clear. In addition to wanting to
privatize both Social Security and Medicare, Ryan has indicated that he
essentially wants to shut down the federal government in the sense of taking
all of the money for the non-military portion of the budget.
. This fact is one that is easy to find if a reporter is willing to do
five minutes of research. Ryan directed the Congressional Budget Office to
score his budget plans back in 2012. The score of his plan showed the
non-Social Security, non-Medicare portion of the federal budget shrinking to
3.5 percent of GDP by 2050 (page 16).
. http://www.commondreams.org/donate
http://www.commondreams.org/donate
This number is roughly equal to current spending on the military. Ryan has
indicated that he does not want to see the military budget cut to any
substantial degree. That leaves no money for the Food and Drug
Administration, the National Institutes of Health, The Justice Department,
infrastructure spending or anything else. Following Ryan's plan, in 35 years
we would have nothing left over after paying for the military.
Just to be clear, this was not some offhanded gaffe where Ryan might have
misspoke. He supervised the CBO analysis. CBO doesn't write-down numbers in
a dark corner and then throw them up on their website to embarrass powerful
members of Congress. As the document makes clear, they consulted with Ryan
in writing the analysis to make sure that they were accurately capturing his
program.
So what percent of people in this country know that the next Speaker of the
House would like to permanently shut down most of the government? What
percent even of elite educated policy types even know this fact? My guess is
almost no one, we just know he is a policy wonk.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
License
/author/dean-baker
/author/dean-baker /author/dean-baker
Dean Baker is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research
(CEPR). He is the author of The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy
Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer and the more recently
published Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of The Bubble Economy. He
also has a blog, "Beat the Press," where he discusses the media's
