Ryan Budget Replays Republican Hits as Time Marches On

The Ryan budget is back and looking awfully familiar. This is Representative Paul Ryan’s third Republican budget in as many years. Like the previous two, it includes apocalyptic warnings about “debasement of our currency” and a U.S. government determined to “cheat us out of our just rewards.” In between such scenarios, it proposes $4.6 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade, culminating in a balanced budget.

Although we don’t agree with Ryan’s perennially dire assessment of the state of the nation, we recognize that he has performed a useful function in making deficit reduction a clarion call. But he and his allies need a new approach.