Lawmakers in Washington are quick to talk the talk of fiscal reform these days. Solutions to the nation’s abysmal financial outlook are at the tip of everyone’s tongue, and even Democrats have conceded that maybe conservatives were right when pointing out that the United States doesn’t have a tax problem but rather a major spending problem. But amidst all this talk, who in Washington is actually willing to walk the walk of actual fiscal reform? Not just hand-wringing. Not just a few symbolic cuts here and raising taxes there, but …
Along with many of our allies, we here at Heritage have been focusing attention on “Progressivism,” the political movement which is largely responsible for the growth and vast expansion of centralized administration in the federal government. As I have argued in my own book, progressivism challenged the original principles of the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution as outmoded 18th century ideas and instead promoted “evolving” rights and a “living” Constitution that constantly adapts the founding principles and unlimits government to address any and every social problem of the …
While President Obama and congressional liberals have yet to come down from the high of passing their historically horrible health care legislation, conservatives are still hard at work promoting health care reform. This is because with its numerous new taxes, mandates, penalties, regulations, and new role for government, Obamacare can hardly be called reform. Instead, the recently passed law is more likely to aggravate existing problems and create new ones for our health care system, not to mention add staggering new amounts to the federal deficit. One crusader still hard …
On March 9 the Tax Policy Center (TPC) released a preliminary analysis of the tax reform proposal contained in Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) Roadmap for America’s Future fiscal plan. The TPC analysis helps Ryan advance the tax reform ball considerably, but it also raises issues some of which need to be addressed by Congressman Ryan (R-WI), the author of the plan, and some by the TPC. Perhaps most important of all is that the TPC analysis, along with a slew of commentary both favorable and unfavorable from other sources, confirms …
As Heritage analysts have noted time and again, spending from congressional liberals’ health care proposals would be in the trillions, growing the federal deficit. The President has proposed a modification of the Senate bill with provisions that would make it even more expensive. At last week’s Health Care Summit, hosted by the White House, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) echoed these same concerns over the true cost of the President’s proposal for health care reform. Thus far, neither the President nor the leaders of Congress- not one- have responded to Ryan’s …
Yesterday at the Blair House health summit, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) directly challenged the White House’s deficit reduction claims. From the transcript: Look, we agree on the problem here, and the problem is health inflation is driving us off of a fiscal cliff. Mr. President, you said health care reform is budget reform. You’re right. We agree with that. Medicare right now has a $38 trillion unfunded liability. That’s $38 trillion in empty promises to my parents’ generation, our generation, our kids’ generation. Medicaid is growing at 21 percent this …
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) recently introduced the “Roadmap for America’s Future”, a plan to reduce federal spending, pay off the national debt, and ensure future American prosperity. The Roadmap would create long-term fiscal solvency in the three federal entitlement programs—Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security—which otherwise promise to drive the nation into bankruptcy. Rep. Ryan’s legislation is currently the only comprehensive proposal to reverse the federal government’s budgetary woes. The only acknowledgment Democrats have offered of Rep. Ryan’s proposal has been largely criticism. Alternative solutions heard from the left amount to …
During his State of the Union Address, Obama said that if “anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors, and stop insurance company abuses, let me know.” Earlier that day, Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) introduced his Roadmap for America’s Future Act of 2010, which provides all of the above. The Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) analysis of Rep. Ryan’s legislation proves the plan would accomplish President Obama’s goals by reforming entitlements, reining in government spending, …
Our nation is on an unsustainable fiscal course. The three major entitlements – Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid – alone are set to eclipse historical tax levels by 2052 and a realistic assessment of the Congressional Budget Office baseline shows the government piling on an additional $13 trillion over the next ten years. The time for pointing out the existence of a problem is over. Both Democrats and Republicans now agree entitlement reform must be a top priority. The question now is what exactly the inevitable reform will include. Specifically, …
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkPiJayiuUA[/youtube] “The most outrageous detail in the current House bill is the philosophy on which it is premised. It is premised on the philosophy that the government knows best how to organize 1/6th of our economy,” said Rep. Ryan (R-WI) today before visiting Heritage’s Bloggers Briefing. Ryan was speaking about the current House health bill, a behemoth piece of legislation weighing in at 1,990 pages and costing $1.5 trillion.
