Ryan Budget: The Numbers

Now that the world-famous usgovernmentspending.com has the Ryan Budget Plan up, we can look at the numbers. We've taken Table S-3 and S-4 from "The Path to Prosperity" and ginned them up at the Budget Analyst section at usgovernmentspending.com. Look at the numbers in the out-years from 2016 and 2021.

Yeah. Look at the difference in Total Outlays between the Ryan Budget and the president's budget. It starts at $617 billion for 2016 and ends up at more than a trillion dollars a year by 2021. Wow! So where does all the money come from? Half of it comes from $233 billion savings in Net Interest expense and $244 billion from repealing ObamaCare. Then comes Other Mandatory programs at $225 billion savings, and finally reforms of Medicaid at $170 billion. So really the cuts don't bite that much into the sacred programs of Medicare and Social Security. Not yet. That's because Medicare reforms don't start until the current 55 year olds retire and Ryan doesn't attempt to reform Social Security.

They say that the Ryan Budget Plan is a huge risk for the Republicans. But you have to wonder if it's all that big a deal. Nobody is going to be out of pocket for ten years except for Democrats cashing in on jobs programs and all the little programs in the budget.

But considering that the Democrats have been feasting and partying on the government dime for the last half century, maybe it's time for them to go on a diet for a while. In the interests of their own health, of course.