US Rep. Ryan responds to concerns about his balanced-budget roadmap
The House Budget Committee ranking Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., questions Budget Director Peter Orszag, on Capitol Hill in Washington during the committee's hearing on the President Barack Obama's fiscal 2011 federal budget.
LAUREN VICTORIA BURKE/AP
In recent weeks, TaxVox has posted a couple of articles (here and here) that expressed concerns about US Rep. Paul Ryan's dramatic fiscal plan aimed at balancing the budget and eliminating the national debt by the end of the century. Today, the Wisconsin Republican issued this response.
We raised two specific issues. The first was that Ryan's tax proposals are unlikely to generate enough revenue to accomplish his goals, even after he makes major reductions in spending. The second was that, rather than fully analyzing Ryan's Plan, the Congressional Budget Office, at the congressman's request, scored only the spending provisions and simply assumed the tax portion would raise the revenue Ryan claimed.
In his response, Ryan says he asked both CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation to formally score his tax plan, but neither did so. His also lays out his case for why his tax plan would raise the amount of revenue he projects--about 19 percent of GDP.
I hope we can all keep the discussion going on this critical issue.
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