Updated: Saturday, August 11, 2012





Below is a compilation of the CBPP analyses and blog posts on the budget that House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan proposed, and the House of Representatives passed, in March. At the bottom of the compilation, we also list the Center's analysis of the Ryan "Roadmap" budget plan.

Overview/General

Blog post: Greenstein Statement

March 21, 2012

“The new Ryan budget is a remarkable document — one that, for most of the past half-century, would have been outside the bounds of mainstream discussion due to its extreme nature. In essence, this budget is Robin Hood in reverse — on steroids. It would likely produce the largest redistribution of income from the bottom to the top in modern U.S. history and likely increase poverty and inequality more than any other budget in recent times (and possibly in the nation’s history).” Full statement: Robert Greenstein, President, on Chairman Ryan's Budget Plan

March 21, 2012 “The new Ryan budget is a remarkable document — one that, for most of the past half-century, would have been outside the bounds of mainstream discussion due to its extreme nature. In essence, this budget is Robin Hood in reverse — on steroids. It would likely produce the largest redistribution of income from the bottom to the top in modern U.S. history and likely increase poverty and inequality more than any other budget in recent times (and possibly in the nation’s history).”

Blog post: Low-Income Programs Would Bear the Brunt of Ryan Cuts

March 23, 2012

The Ryan budget would get at least 62 percent of its $5.3 trillion in nondefense budget cuts over ten years (relative to a continuation of current policies) from programs that serve people of limited means. Analysis: Chairman Ryan Gets 62 Percent of His Huge Budget Cuts from Programs for Lower-Income Americans

March 23, 2012 The Ryan budget would get at least 62 percent of its $5.3 trillion in nondefense budget cuts over ten years (relative to a continuation of current policies) from programs that serve people of limited means.





Blog post: When Is a Deal Not a Deal?

March 22, 2012

With defense funding well above the Budget Control Act’s funding caps in coming years, and non-defense discretionary funding very far below those caps, the Ryan budget bears little resemblance to the bipartisan agreement reached last summer.







Blog post: Who Really Punted on Pell?

April 27, 2012

Pell Grants to help students from low-income families pay for college face a $58 billion shortfall over the next decade — even though the Congressional Budget Office says the program’s costs will remain flat during that period — because the way Congress has funded them in recent years has made the costs appear artificially low. Analysis: President's Budget Would Reduce Pell Grant Shortfall; Ryan Budget Would Nearly Triple It

April 27, 2012 Pell Grants to help students from low-income families pay for college face a $58 billion shortfall over the next decade — even though the Congressional Budget Office says the program’s costs will remain flat during that period — because the way Congress has funded them in recent years has made the costs appear artificially low.

Taxes





Blog post: Thinking About Tax Policy, Part 4: Ryan Plan a Costly Step in the Wrong Direction

April 13, 2012

This series has explained why we need to raise more revenue and why it makes sense to start at the top of the income scale. The budget from House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan goes in exactly the opposite direction — it would cut taxes deeply at the top and raise even less revenue than if we continued all of President Bush’s tax cuts, leading to bigger deficits and worse income inequality. Analysis: New Tax Cuts in Ryan Budget Would Give Millionaires $265,000 on Top of Bush Tax Cuts

This series has explained why we need to raise more revenue and why it makes sense to start at the top of the income scale. The budget from House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan goes in exactly the opposite direction — it would cut taxes deeply at the top and raise even less revenue than if we continued all of President Bush’s tax cuts, leading to bigger deficits and worse income inequality.

Blog post: Myths on Spending, Debt, and Taxes Fuel Ryan Vision

April 5, 2012

Chad Stone: In my post for US News & World Report, I identify three myths about spending, debt, and taxes that conservative politicians use to justify the plan of House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan -- one that would set the nation on a path to end most of government other than Social Security, health care, and defense by 2050.

Analysis: Ryan Budget's Claim to Finance Its Tax Cuts for the Wealthy By Curbing Their Tax Breaks Does Not Withstand Scrutiny

March 22, 2012

Despite warning that the nation faces the “perils of debt,” Chairman Ryan introduced a budget on March 20 whose tax proposals would be extremely costly and would disproportionately favor the nation’s highest-income households and large corporations.

Blog post: Chairman Ryan’s Misleading Chart

March 27, 2012

The lead tax chart in Chairman Ryan’s budget...gives the impression that we can easily eliminate tax expenditures for the very wealthy and thereby pay for lower rates for all taxpayers — including the Ryan plan’s big reduction, to 25 percent, in the top income tax rate. The chart in question is based on data from the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center (TPC). But it does not show what Chairman Ryan suggests it does, for two key reasons.

Health Care

Blog post: Ryan Budget Would Make Big Changes in Medicare

March 29, 2012

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s new budget provides much less detail than last year’s about his proposals in Medicare and other areas — too little for the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to estimate their impact, as Brookings economist William Gale points out. (CBO estimated that Chairman Ryan’s Medicare proposals last year would have driven up total health care spending and doubled the out-of-pocket costs of a typical 65-year-old.) Analysis: Medicare in the Ryan Budget

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s new budget provides much less detail than last year’s about his proposals in Medicare and other areas — too little for the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to estimate their impact, as Brookings economist William Gale points out. (CBO estimated that Chairman Ryan’s Medicare proposals last year would have driven up total health care spending and doubled the out-of-pocket costs of a typical 65-year-old.)

Analysis: Ryan Medicaid Block Grant Would Cut Medicaid by One-Third by 2022 and More After That

March 27, 2012

The Medicaid block-grant proposal in the Ryan budget that the House of Representatives will vote on this week would cut federal Medicaid funding by 34 percent by 2022 (on top of repealing the health reform law’s Medicaid expansion) because the funding would no longer keep pace with health care costs or with expected Medicaid enrollment growth as the population ages and employer-based health insurance continues to erode.

Blog post: Chairman Ryan and the Medicare Part D Myth

March 21, 2012

Chairman Ryan claims that his troubling proposal to convert Medicare into a premium support system would control costs and notes that the Medicare Part D drug benefit, which private insurers provide, has cost much less than the Congressional Budget Office expected. But Part D’s reliance on private plans had nothing to do with its lower-than-expected costs. Analysis: Lower-Than-Expected Medicare Drug Costs Reflect Decline in Overall Drug Spending and Lower Enrollment, Not Private Plans — Evidence Shows Reliance on Private Insurers Actually Raised Medicare Costs

Chairman Ryan claims that his troubling proposal to convert Medicare into a premium support system would control costs and notes that the Medicare Part D drug benefit, which private insurers provide, has cost much less than the Congressional Budget Office expected. But Part D’s reliance on private plans had nothing to do with its lower-than-expected costs.

Blog post: Ryan’s Rx for Medicaid Would Add Millions to the Uninsured and Underinsured

March 20, 2012

The Ryan budget proposes to radically restructure Medicaid by converting it into a block grant and to slash federal funding by about one-fifth over the next decade. All told, it would add tens of millions of Americans to the ranks of the uninsured and underinsured.

Safety Net

Blog post: The Massive Hidden Safety-Net Cuts in Chairman Ryan’s Budget

March 21, 2012

A key misunderstood element of the Ryan budget is its proposed cut in spending for non-discretionary programs other than Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other health programs. There is no way to generate the budget’s required savings without extremely severe cuts in these programs, on which the most vulnerable Americans depend.

Blog post: Chairman Ryan’s Call for “Welfare Reform, Round Two” Ignores Inconvenient Facts About Round One

March 21, 2012

Since a safety net is supposed to help people during times of economic need, the true measure of success is how it does during the worst of times, not the best of times. And, 15 years after Congress enacted welfare reform, we can see clearly that it is not the resounding success that Chairman Ryan claims. Analysis: TANF Weakening as a Safety Net For Poor Families

Since a safety net is supposed to help people during times of economic need, the true measure of success is how it does during the worst of times, not the best of times. And, 15 years after Congress enacted welfare reform, we can see clearly that it is not the resounding success that Chairman Ryan claims.

Analysis of Ryan "Roadmap" Budget Plan of January 2010





The Ryan Budget's Radical Priorities — Provides Largest Tax Cuts in History for Wealthy, Raises Middle Class Taxes, Ends Guaranteed Medicare, Privatizes Social Security, Erodes Health Care

The Roadmap would give the most affluent households a new round of very large, costly tax cuts by reducing income tax rates on high-income households; eliminating income taxes on capital gains, dividends, and interest; and abolishing the corporate income tax, the estate tax, and the alternative minimum tax. At the same time, the Ryan plan would raise taxes for most middle-income families, privatize a substantial portion of Social Security, eliminate the tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance, end traditional Medicare and most of Medicaid, and terminate the Children’s Health Insurance Program. The plan would replace these health programs with a system of vouchers whose value would erode over time and thus would purchase health insurance that would cover fewer health care services as the years went by.