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FACT CHECK: Ryan Advised GOP Leaders Not To Work With The President To Reduce Deficit
This is a press release from BarackObama.com, so I'm quoting it in its entirety:
http://www.barackobama.com/press/release/fact-check-ryan-advised-gop-leaders-not-to-work-with-the-president-to-reduc
FACT CHECK: Ryan Advised GOP Leaders Not To Work With The President To Reduce Deficit
August 29, 2012
FACT CHECK: Ryan Advised GOP Leaders Not To Work With The President To Reduce Deficit
Despite Congressman Ryan’s remarks about the debt, he advised Republican leaders not to work with the President to reduce the deficit because it would help his re-election prospects. Ryan led Congressional Republicans in opposing Simpson-Bowles and in rejecting a “grand bargain” with President Obama to bring down the deficit. Instead of explaining how they would reduce the deficit, Romney and Ryan have offered is a $5 trillion tax cut plan geared toward millionaires and billionaires that will either explode the deficit or raise taxes on middle class families.
RYAN OPPOSED DEFICIT REDUCTION DEAL BECAUSE IT WOULD HELP PRESIDENT OBAMA’S RE-ELECTION CHANCES
New York Times: Ryan “Disliked” Deficit Reduction Deal And “Was Concerned That A Deal Would Pave The Way For Mr. Obama’s Easy Re-Election.” “Mr. Ryan’s enormous influence was apparent last summer when Representative Eric Cantor, the second most powerful House Republican, told Mr. Obama during negotiations over an attempted bipartisan ‘grand bargain’ that Mr. Ryan disliked its policy and was concerned that a deal would pave the way for Mr. Obama’s easy re-election, according to a Democrat and a Republican who were briefed on the conversation.” [New York Times, 8/13/12]
RYAN VOTED AGAINST SIMPSON-BOWLES COMMISSION REPORT
Ryan Voted Against Report Of Simpson-Bowles Deficit Commission. “Earlier today, Congressman Paul Ryan stated his intention to vote against the plan proposed by the Co-Chairmen of the Fiscal Commission. … Regardless of the outcome of Friday’s vote, the Fiscal Commission has been a success. Due in large part to the leadership of the Co-Chairmen, Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, the proposal and the commission have successfully launched a critical debate facing this country: how to get the Federal government’s fiscal house in order and ensure a prosperous future for coming generations of Americans. This is the debate I’ve worked hard to advance with my own reform proposals, and it has been a privilege to serve as an active participant in the Fiscal Commission this past year.” [Rep. Paul Ryan press release, 12/2/10]
Ryan Cited Insufficient Attention To Health Care Entitlements As His Reason For Opposing Report. “Tasked with an extraordinarily difficult challenge, the Co-Chairmen put forth a comprehensive and provocative proposal to help tackle the debt threat, advancing a sorely needed debate on these critical issues. Their proposal is a serious and credible plan, but I cannot support it. We must address the explosive growth of our health care entitlement programs at the structural level to meet the fiscal and economic challenges confronting this nation. This plan not only lacks needed structural reforms, but would in fact take us in the wrong direction on health care by accelerating the adverse consequences of the President’s health care law. It also relies too heavily on tax increases, which would stifle the very growth and prosperity that are the essential preconditions of a sustainable fiscal path.” [Rep. Paul Ryan press release, 12/2/10]
Ryan Said Final Report Did Not Address “Elephant In The Room” Of Health Care. “Ryan praised much of the work of debt commission, headed by former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and former Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., though he voted against its final report. He said he did so “because it didn’t address the elephant in the room: health care. ... If you’re going to fix this fiscal crisis, you’ve got to take on health care.” The Bowles-Simpson commission’s recommended cancellation of the tax exclusion for employer-based health care plans “accelerates the expansion of Obamacare,” which he’s convinced will cause employers to transfer millions of workers into government-subsidized exchanges, exploding costs.” [Mort Kondracke op-ed, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, 12/13/10]
Ryan Hit Simpson-Bowles Commission For Not Repealing Health Care Reform. “The fatal flaw of President Obama’s fiscal commission is that it left the president’s partisan health care law virtually untouched. No solution to our fiscal challenge can afford to ignore the core driver of our debt, which is government spending on health care. And the simple truth is that the president’s law accelerates our fiscal day of reckoning by expanding Medicaid, raiding Medicare and creating a brand new health care entitlement program.” [Ryan op-ed, USA Today, 4/4/12]
Ryan Later Said He Had No Regrets About Opposing Simpson-Bowles. “BURNETT: Do you have any regrets about not voting for Simpson-Bowles? RYAN: No. BURNETT: When I look at the one-page summary and your 98-page report, I mean, you’re 80 percent overlap. Venn diagram would be pretty favorable. RYAN: Yes. Alan and Erskine, I really like the guys a lot. I’m friends with them. What I didn’t want to do was to go to the country and suggest that I’m fixing the problem like with Simpson-Bowles when I know it’s not. Because it ignored healthcare.” [Ryan interview with Erin Burnett, “Erin Burnett OutFront,” CNN, 3/20/12]
PRESIDENT OBAMA HAS A BALANCED PLAN TO BRING DOWN OUR DEFICITS AND STABILIZE THE DEBT THAT REFLECTS THE APPROACH OF THE SIMPSON BOWLES FISCAL COMMISSION
The New Jersey Star-Ledger PolitiFact: President Obama Has “Outlined Deficit Reduction Measures Similar To Those Proposed By The Commission.” “PolitiFact New Jersey investigated whether Obama failed to ‘stand up for the bipartisan debt solutions of the Simpson-Bowles Commission,’ and found that Christie is not entirely right. The president did not fully embrace the commission’s recommendations at the outset, but Obama later outlined deficit reduction measures similar to those proposed by the commission. Even the commission’s co-chairs -- former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles under President Bill Clinton, and former Republican U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson -- have said so. ‘We are encouraged that the President has embraced a balanced, comprehensive approach to deficit reduction similar to that outlined in the Fiscal Commission report,’ Bowles and Simpson said in an April 13 press release.” [New Jersey Star-Ledger, PolitiFact, 9/29/2011]
The President’s Budget, Which Incorporates Deficit Reduction Enacted In 2011, Would Cut The Deficit By More Than $4 Trillion Over The Next Decade. “That is why in this Budget, the President again has put forward a plan that will, together with the deficit reduction enacted last year, cut the deficit by more than $4 trillion over the next decade. This would put our Nation on the right course toward a level of deficits of below 3 percent of GDP by the end of the decade.” [FY2013 Budget, White House Office Of Management And Budget, February 2012]
Center On Budget And Policy Priorities: President Obama’s Budget Would Stabilize The Debt Over The Coming Decade Through “A Balanced Combination Of Spending Cuts And Revenue Increases.” “If Congress enacted the Obama budget in full and its economic assumptions proved correct, the debt would stabilize over the coming decade although, as the White House acknowledges, policymakers would have to subsequently enact significant further deficit reduction to keep the debt stable in future decades. The budget either achieves or approaches this key fiscal target for the coming decade with several trillion dollars in deficit reduction, through a balanced combination of spending cuts and revenue increases.” [Center On Budget And Policy Priorities, 2/16/12]
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