Stockman took special aim at Chairman Ryan, who this week proposed a politically risky budget that Thursday garnered laurels from The Wall Street Journal for attacking the festering growth of en lement costs, particularly through Medicare reform.
“I think he has a nice philosophical plan for the fiscal hereafter, two or three decades down the road,” Stockman sniffed. “But it is neither courageous nor relevant when it comes to the fiscal here and now… It’s a fine plan that starts in 2021. We need to deal with revenue, en lements, defense and discretionaries, and the problem with his plan is it doesn’t address more than one of those appropriately. Discretionaries, yes, but it totally whiffs on the other three—which are much more important.”
Stockman points out that, at current levels, “Social Security and Medicare alone will cost $17.2 trillion over the next 10 years—a startling number. How much does this courageous budget cut from the en lements over the next 10 years? Zero! None! Nothing! Ryan is taking a nice philosophical stand for the by and by—I call it the fiscal afterlife. But it’s not relevant to the wolf that’s at the door right now, and it’s going to exact huge amounts of political cost and baggage for no gain at all on the fiscal front.”
Also galling to Stockman: “The Republicans have come with a plan to reduce the deficit that involves cutting taxes by $4.2 trillion over the next 10 years. This is the Ryan plan: burying us that much deeper because of this Republican catechism about tax cuts, anytime, anywhere, for any reason.” Stockman said letting the current tax cuts expire, as called for in the next few years, will eventually produce $600 billion in deficit reduction. “The Republicans should just sit on their hands and let it happen.”
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