Ryan’s austerity budget

last updated 8 January 2015

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) this week unveiled an election-year budget plan that would cut spending by $5.1 trillion over the next decade and repeal the Affordable Care Act. The blueprint, designed to appeal to the party’s base in the run-up to November’s midterms, would cut Medicaid and health-care spending for the poor by $732 billion, Medicare by $129 billion, and food stamps by $125 billion. The goal is to “empower recipients to get off the aid rolls and back on the payrolls,” said Ryan. He also proposed adding $483 billion to military spending. Rep. Steve Israel of New York, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said his party will make Ryan’s “scandalous” plan “the centerpiece” of this year’s campaigns.