Ryan: Looming Defense Cuts ‘Irresponsible’

Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan said President Barack Obama is “ignoring the law” by failing to outline defense-spending cuts put in place by the Budget Control Act.

Ryan, appearing on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” also said he does not support imposing $478 billion in reductions on the U.S. military even though he voted for the sequestration.

“We passed, in the House, a bill to prevent those devastating defense cuts by cutting spending elsewhere,” he said. “The Senate’s done nothing. President Obama’s done nothing.”

Ryan called the cuts “irresponsible” and “devastating” and said Congress has passed bills to substitute them,

“The goal was never that these defense cuts actually occur,” he said. “The goal is that we get to work and cut spending so that we prevent those defense cuts. We’ve done that. The president hasn’t.”

On the issue of taxes, the Wisconsin congressman said the Romney budget will not raise them on the middle class. Instead, loopholes for higher-income earners will be eliminated.

“What the numbers do show, and what studies back us up, is that we could lower tax rates by plugging loopholes and still maintain special preferences for middle-class taxpayers, not for higher-income taxpayers, though,” Ryan said.