Democrats who believe they can score points by excoriating the bold budget plan put forward by Republican Rep. Paul Ryan may want to pause and consider the Tea Party-induced atmosphere of 2011 American politics.
The congressional Democrats already have a problem in that their harsh denigration of short-term GOP budget cutting plans, which would trim the current budget by just a sliver, contrasts with their claims of a dangerous and outrageous cutback by the Republicans. Senate Democrats in particular seem willing to shut the government down and wait for the hoped-for public reaction.
If the pending $30 to $60 billion reduction is so distasteful, how are they going to counter a Ryan plan that doesn’t balance the budget until 30 years out?
David Brooks, The New York Times’ moderate Republican columnist, has a no-holds-barred take on the current budget mess and the young Ryan’s emergence as the grown-up on Capitol Hill.
While President Obama adheres to a long-range budget that would double the nation’s debt in 10 years, Brooks said, the Republicans offer a stark alternative that acknowledges that “the current welfare state is simply unsustainable.”
After the president’s fiscal commission, which offered dramatic budget changes in a report last fall, was largely ignored throughout Washington, Brooks said Ryan has put forth a plan that “tackles just about every politically risky issue with brio and guts.”
Perhaps demonstrating as much optimism as the Wisconsin Republican, Brooks sees Ryan following in the footsteps of his mentor, the late congressman Jack Kemp, in presenting an energetic, uplifiting plan that demonstrates leadership, not a grim list of cutbacks that will lead to more gloom.
Here’s the Brooks conclusion:
“Over the past few weeks, a number of groups, including the ex-chairmen of the Council of Economic Advisers and 64 prominent budget experts, have issued letters arguing that the debt situation is so dire that doing nothing is not a survivable option.
“What they lacked was courageous political leadership — a powerful elected official willing to issue a proposal, willing to take a stand, willing to face the political perils.
“The country lacked that leadership until (now). Paul Ryan, the Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee, (has) released the most comprehensive and most courageous budget reform proposal any of us have seen in our lifetimes.
“Ryan is expected to leap into the vacuum left by the president’s passivity. The Ryan budget will not be enacted this year, but it will immediately reframe the domestic policy debate.
“His proposal will set the standard of seriousness for anybody who wants to play in this discussion. It will become the 2012 Republican platform, no matter who is the (presidential) nominee. Any candidate hoping to win that nomination will have to be able to talk about government programs with this degree of specificity.”