Last updated on March 18th, 2013 at 01:04 am
Paul Ryan admitted that his budget is based on the lie that Obamacare adds to the deficit, and without it being repealed, his budget doesn’t work.
Transcript via The Kudlow Report:
LARRY KUDLOW: All right, let me just ask you– about this whole budget business, which is what everyone’s preoccupied with. I thought the biggest bombshell in your budget was the fact that you called for repeal of Obamacare, which most people would say is the law of the land. It passed muster with the Supreme Court. It was an election issue. Obama won the election. And you want to repeal it in your budget. Tell me why you went there?
PAUL RYAN: So– you think we should just give up our principles when we put out our budget vision? I mean, that’s what I ask people who say, “Why did you repeal Obamacare?” First of all, we think it’s a terrible law. Second of all, this law has yet to be fully implemented. There’s a lot left to go here. And we think as people see the ugly details unfold, we believe this law will collapse under its own weight for lots of reasons.
And we believe in a patient-centered health care system, not a government-run health care system. And that’s why in this budget we articulate we want to replace Obamacare with a patient-centered health care system. And that’s why we’re calling for its repeal. And by the way, it’s about $1.8 trillion in borrowed money it calls for spending over the next 10 years, which is money we don’t have.
LARRY KUDLOW: Is that a plug in your budget, though? You’ve got– you’ve got a 10-year balanced budget. How much of that comes from repealing– Obamacare? What do you make on that?
PAUL RYAN: Well, some of it clearly does come from repealing Obamacare, because it’s spending money that we haven’t spent yet. It’s programs that haven’t been up and running yet that we can’t afford, because they break the budget. And it’s about $1.8 trillion of Obamacare spending that occurs that we propose to get rid of. But at the same time, we think we can actually meet the mission of health and retirement security for Americans without doing all of this–
PAUL RYAN: –government take over.
LARRY KUDLOW: But in terms of your budget, it — if you don’t get it this year, the likelihood of getting repealed this year is very, very, very low. Does it blow a hole in your 10-year budget?
PAUL RYAN: Sure, it blows a hole in your budget, because it’s– it calls for continuing the spending. But what is a budget? A budget is our vision for how we should fix this country’s fiscal problems. And a key part of that vision is we don’t take over– have a government takeover of health care. We also think Obamacare’s going to do great damage to Medicare. This new independent– payment advisory board. The– the IPAB, the 16 people that are going to run this– this panel, we think that’s going to lead to health care rationing.
We believe premium support is a far better way to go. Give the patient the choice of plans that meets her benefit, her needs, not this board of bureaucrats that the president’s going to appoint. So on all the big issues, we are showing what we think is the best way to fix our fiscal problems…
When pressed about the validity of his assumptions, Paul Ryan resorted to lies about Obamacare. (The IPAB lie is one of his personal favorites. He used it often during his failed 2012 run for the vice presidency.)
Rep. Ryan has gotten a surprising amount of push back from the usually friendly right wing media on his assumption that Obamacare will be repealed. On Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace called BS on Ryan, and told him that repealing Obamacare isn’t going to happen.
Ryan’s budget is based on the gigantic lie that Obamacare is going to add to the deficit. Ryan’s whole budget is based on this lie, despite the fact that the CBO has said repeatedly that Obamacare will lower the deficit by $4 billion.
In order for Ryan’s math to add up, he has to falsely project that Obamacare will add to the deficit. He then has to follow up that falsehood with the illogical assumption that Obamacare will be repealed.
Paul Ryan’s budget is a giant ideological house of cards that is based on a big Republican lie. As he continues to get called out on this, Ryan seems to be running away from his own budget by trying to reframe it as a statement of ideological principle.
Even a causal read of Ryan’s budget reveals that the numbers don’t add up. His budget has more in common with a letter to Santa Claus than actual budgetary policy.
Rep. Ryan admitted that his budget is based on a couple of really big lies, and without those falsehoods, his budget doesn’t work.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
- Trump And House GOP’s Promise To Not Cut Social Security Is Total Nonsense - Fri, Dec 20th, 2024
- Trump And Mike Johnson Agree To Apparently Cut Americans’ Healthcare To Pay For Tax Cuts For The Rich - Fri, Dec 20th, 2024
- Dozens Of Republicans Humiliate Trump/Musk By Voting Down CR - Thu, Dec 19th, 2024
