Reagan Budget Director Attacks Paul Ryan’s Economic Policies
As Rep. Paul Ryan’s financial ideas garner more national scrutiny, a trio of stories this week show that they collide with past Republican policies, including those of one of the party’s icons.
In an op-ed piece for the New York Times Monday, David Stockman, who served as the Office of Budget and Management’s director under Ronald Reagan, slammed the vice-presidential candidate’s financial plan for lacking decisive policy measures.
“The Ryan Plan boils down to a fetish for cutting the top marginal income-tax rate for ‘job creators’ — i.e. the superwealthy — to 25 percent and paying for it with an as-yet-undisclosed plan to broaden the tax base,” Stockman wrote. “Of the $1 trillion in so-called tax expenditures that the plan would attack, the vast majority would come from slashing popular tax breaks for employer-provided health insurance, mortgage interest, 401(k) accounts, state and local taxes, charitable giving and the like, not to mention low rates on capital gains and dividends. The crony capitalists of K Street already own more than enough Republican votes to stop that train before it leaves the station.”
According to a post published at The Hill on Tuesday, Ryan (R-WI) has also worked to undo a part of Reagan’s economic legacy: the spousal protection clause under Medicaid. In each of the past two years, Scott Lilly wrote, Ryan has proposed gutting federal aid for state Medicaid programs, including the elimination of the 1988 mandate allowing patients’ spouses to protect their assets and income while receiving Medicare assistance.
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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/14/reagan-budget-director-attacks-paul-ryans-budget/
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