About a month ago I asked when we were going to have a serious conversation about our national debt, it looks like that time might be now if our Republican and Tea Party congressman have the courage to grab the moment with the release of Rep. Paul Ryan‘s budget plan. Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, is the author of the Roadmap for America, and is Chairman of the House Budget Committee.
he outlined the new GOP budget proposal today in a piece in the Wall Street Journal titled The GOP Path to Prosperity. It seems to me that the ball is now in the Democrat’s court. They must explain why we need to spend so much money better. They have been spending like drunken sailors since Obama took office and we have not seen any appreciable increase in jobs. That does not leave Republicans off the hook though; they were almost as guilty of spending excess during the Bush presidency. The Democrat’s have just taken the gloves off while using the financial crisis as political cover.
There is no doubt that reforming government and especially government spending will be a painful process and it is almost certain that the House proposal is dead on arrival. The hope, for me at least, is that a serious conversation on reforming the government and averting the coming disaster will be started. I am not holding my breath though.
As always, the political circus is bound to frenzied, the reaction to, and support for, Ryan’s proposal is already starting. What Paul Ryan’s budget actually does, G.O.P. Blueprint Would Remake Health Policy, Repeal of ObamaCare Key to Ryan Budget Plan.
Unfortunately, what I am only hearing whispers of from Congress and the proposal I favor the most to get Federal spending under control, is a Balanced Budget Amendment. I have no doubt that the talk for it is coming, though it might be a few years down the road. Here is a very interesting papaer put together by Mary Meeker from the investment firm of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers called USA Inc. that looks at American economic prospects by examining the USA as if it were a business. It is a very interesting read.