Ryan blasts Obama budget in GOP response

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, blasted President Obama’s budget and touted the Republican alternative on Saturday.

Delivering the weekly Republican Internet and radio response to the president, Ryan said Obama’s budget focuses too much on spending and taxes, a common refrain from the GOP leading up to the vote last week.

{mosads}“Put simply: the Democrats’ budget spends too much, taxes too much, and borrows too much from our kids and their kids,” Ryan said. “Their budget puts all the sacrifice on future generations. It makes no tough choices. It’s only tough on our children and grandchildren.”

Obama’s $3.55 trillion budget passed through both the House and the Senate earlier this week. The budget has been uniformly criticized by Republicans for driving up the nation’s deficit. Not one Republican voted to pass the budget.

In particular, Republicans have criticized Obama’s plan to increase taxes on the wealthy. Obama plans to use the $1 trillion raised in those new taxes for expanded programs in healthcare, education and energy.

Ryan has been the leading voice selling the GOP’s alternative since it was introduced last week. The Republican budget prescribes a better outline for how to cope with the economic recession, Ryan said.

“The budget House Republicans offered gives Americans a real choice. It curbs spending, creates jobs, and controls the debt,” he said. “The Republican budget has lower deficits than the Democratic plan every year, and by 2019, has half the deficit proposed by the President. Under our plan, the public debt would be $3.6 trillion lower than President Obama’s plan.”

Ryan said the GOP budget, which is not headed for a vote, called for freezing all other discretionary spending except in national security and veterans’ health care for five years. The Republican also said that the budget also takes important steps on healthcare reform.

“We have offered a concrete plan – a path to prosperity – to tackle our nation’s problems with innovative and principled solutions,” Ryan said. “America is not the greatest nation on Earth by chance. We earned this greatness by rewarding individual achievement, by advancing and protecting natural rights, and by embracing freedom. Our budget reflects those principles, and we offer the American people a better way forward.”