Rep. Paul Ryan, the highest ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, tells Newsmax it’s “just incredible” that President Barack Obama and the Democrats are seeking to raise taxes by more than $1 trillion in the midst of a recession.
The Wisconsin legislator also said the so-called stimulus bill is really an attempt to pander to special interest groups that support the Democrats.
Newsmax’s Ashley Martella asked Rep. Ryan for his thoughts on the huge budget proposed by the Obama administration.
“It’s the biggest government budget I have ever seen. I could just leave it at that, but let me give you a few points,” Ryan said.
[Editor's Note: Watch Paul Ryan discuss Obama’s dangerous economic strategy - Go Here Now]
“This budget in its first year proposes to take the size of our government to the largest it’s been since 1945. It doubles our national debt within eight years. In fact, for all the criticism of the Bush administration and their increase in the debt, this budget surpasses eight years of debt increases in the Bush administration within two years of the Obama administration.
“And during a recession they’re trying to impose a $1.4 trillion tax increase on the economy, on work, on income, on saving, on investing, on energy, on manufacturing. It strikes me as just incredible that in the middle of a recession, of all times, they would bring a budget that seeks to impose a gusher of new spending and all of these new taxes.
“And even with the high tax increase they’re talking about, they will never get to a balanced budget. They don’t even propose to try to get to a balanced budget. In fact, under this budget they’re proposing, our deficits are the highest that they’ve ever been.”
Martella asked Rep. Ryan if the stimulus package is going to work.
“I don’t think so, and that’s one of the reasons I voted against it,” Ryan responded.
“The whole notion that you can borrow and spend your way to prosperity has been refuted by economic evidence. It didn’t work when we tried the same policies in the ‘30s. It didn’t work when the Japanese tried the same policies in the ‘90s.
“It balloons our borrowing. It makes our borrowing costs go up. It puts bad pressure on the Federal Reserve.
“But even if you are committed to this economic doctrine of borrowing and spending to get the economy moving, most of the spending doesn’t occur for a couple of more years, and so it doesn’t even occur during the time when they say the spending should occur to get this economy going again.
“It’s more of a plan to put in place a very large government and it’s a down payment on this big budget they put in place…
“I think what they ended up doing was putting in the stimulus bill the things they’ve always wanted to do, to set aside the pent-up demand from their special interest spending lobby groups and then call it stimulus.”
Martella noted that Ryan is one of the leaders of an effort to institute a line item veto that would force legislators to vote on individual appropriations.
“The president ought to be able to take the pork out of these bills he signs and send it back to Congress and force Congress to take a clean up or down vote on these ridiculous spending items,” Ryan explained.
“Just last Wednesday the House passed a bloated spending bill with 9,000 earmarks in it — $250,000 to renovate the old DuPont family tugboat, a couple of hundred thousand dollars for advertising expenses for two convenience store owners in Louisville, Kentucky, money for swine odor research. On and on and on the list goes.
“What happens is the president has to sign this huge [budget] bill or veto the huge bill. Let’s give the president the ability to embarrass some of this pork out of the budget send it back and make us vote on it individually.”
If tax and spend plans don’t rejuvenate the economy, Martella asked, are Republicans prepared to make an issue of it in 2010?
“Absolutely,” Ryan declared. “We’re making an issue of it right now by saying we don’t think this is the right direction.”
[Editor's Note: Watch Paul Ryan discuss Obama’s dangerous economic strategy - Go Here Now]
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