Ryan Defends GOP Budget as ‘Compassionate and Optimistic’

President Barack Obama and Democrats have criticized the House Republicans’ 2012 budget as an attack on the poor. That’s simply not the case, says Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., author of the plan to cut the deficit by $5.8 trillion over the next decade.

Rep. Paul Ryan (AP photo)

“Our budget offers a compassionate and optimistic contrast to a future of health-care rationing and unbearably high taxes,” the House Budget Committee chairman writes in The Washington Post.

“We lift the crushing burden of debt, repair the safety net, make America’s tax system fair and competitive, and ensure that our health and retirement programs have a strong and lasting future. These issues are too important to leave to the politics of the past. If President Obama won’t lead, we will.”