[ale] [OT/Political] Re: Well isn't this special

[Greg Freemyer]

On Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 2:28 PM, George Carless <kafka at antichri.st> wrote:
>>
>> Odds are high that Tea Party advocates will control the budget for the
>> next 2 years.  So we'll get a real chance to check out how they manage
>> it!
>
> You know, maybe I'm crazy but I'd really like to know what proposals are BEFORE an election; even in a
> very rough way. Something better than "govmint out of my pocket, but better not touch my medicare."
> Especially after having witnessed what Bush--whose policies were likely way to the *left* of the
> current hysteria--did to the state of the national economy...
>
> George

Okay, 2 minutes of googling leads to Paul Ryan's 2011 proposed budget:

http://www.roadmap.republicans.budget.house.gov/

I assume he will be in charge of the budget committee 6 months from
now, so his thoughts will be as important or more so than anybodies.
Remember the budget comes out of the House, not the Senate so he will
be the ultimate detail man for the budget.

He asked the CBO to grade his roadmap:
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/108xx/doc10851/01-27-Ryan-Roadmap-Letter.pdf

Note:
Roadmap = Ryan's plan

alternative fiscal scenario = one interpretation of what it would mean
to continue current fiscal policy

Lots of cuts in Ryan's plan for sure, but here is the key part from
the end of the letter:

====
Using CBO’s “textbook growth” model, it is not possible to simulate
the effects of the
alternative fiscal scenario after 2058 because deficits become so
large and unsustainable
that the model cannot calculate their effects.

The Roadmap would put the federal
budget on a sustainable path, generating an annual budget surplus of
about 5 percent
of GDP by 2080. According to CBO’s textbook growth model, which incorporates
the assumption that economic output is determined by the number of
hours of labor
that workers supply, the size and composition of the capital stock,
and the state of
technological expertise, real potential gross national product per
person would continue
to grow over the entire 75-year period (see Figure 4).10 The economy
would be considerably stronger under the proposal (as analyzed by CBO)
than it would be
under the alternative fiscal scenario. Real gross national product per
person would be
about 70 percent higher in 2058 under the proposal than under the
alternative fiscal
scenario.
====

So, although you may not like them, the proposals are out there and
able to be evaluated.

Greg