PETHOKOUKIS: Faster, please: Why Romney and Ryan should double-down on Medicare reform, ASAP | AEIdeas
By MB Snow at August 18, 2012 | 12:15 am | Print
1. The Obama administration apparently does not believe America’s debt problem to be a near-term or medium-term problem. Its recent budget, for instance, would stabilize the debt-to-GDP ratio at around 76% for the next decade (though the ratio would begin to climb sharply afterward). Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has admitted Team Obama has no long-term debt plan. And Obamacrats point to lower U.S. interest rates as a sign financial markets share their relaxed assessment.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
2. Many Republicans believe just the opposite, and this is reflected in their various budget proposals.
For example, Paul Ryan’s Path to Prosperity budget (at least the version using the slow-growth economic assumption of the Congressional Budget Office) would bring the debt-to-GDP ratio down to 61% by 2023 and to 38% — more or less where it was before the Great Recession — by 2040.
In the PTP, Ryan says the plan “offers a blueprint for safeguarding America from the perils of debt, doubt, and decline. Americans, not Washington, deserve to choose the path their nation takes, and this budget presents a clear choice between the bleak future toward which the nation is currently headed and the prosperous future that Americans can build together with a government that is limited and effective.”
via Faster, please: Why Romney and Ryan should double-down on Medicare reform, ASAP | AEIdeas.
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