House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan denounced President Barack Obama’s $3.8 trillion spending plan as “an unserious budget” filled with “temporary sugar-high economics,” “gimmicks,” and “tricks.”
“Stimulus spending and temporary tax rebates — they didn’t work when President Bush tried them, they didn’t work when President Obama tried them, and they’re a very poor substitute for pro-growth economic policies,” the Wisconsin Republican said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“What is frustrating about the White House is they’ve had four budget submissions, and they’ve decided to duck this challenge every time. More debt, more spending, more taxes. That hurts our economy. That will lead to austerity.”
On another controversial issue, Ryan said Obama is trampling on the Constitution with his mandate on insurance coverage for contraception.
“It’s not an issue about contraception,” he said. “It’s an issue that reveals a political philosophy that the president is showing that basically treats our constitutional rights as if they’re revocable privileges from our government, not inalienable rights by our creator.”
The administration’s requirement that Catholic institutions cover contraception in their health-care insurance policies has exploded in controversy, which continued even after the president backed off a bit to require insurance companies to provide the coverage.
“The question is, is should the government have the power to mandate these things of us?” Ryan said. “The question is, is can the government mandate that people violate their religious teaching, their conscience, their freedom of religion? If the president is willing to trample on our Constitutional rights in a difficult election year, imagine what he will do…after he doesn’t have to face the voters again.”
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