GOP Weekly Radio Address Congressman
Paul Ryan (WI-01)
Hello, I’m Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the lead Republican on the House Budget Committee.
America is in the midst of an economic crisis. Families and small businesses are hurting, and too many Americans have lost their jobs. There is no doubt that President Obama inherited a fiscal crisis. But the question is, is he fixing it or is he making it worse?
The President’s budget, which passed the House and Senate this week, will make the crisis much, much worse. Rather than getting spending under control, it sends spending out of control. Rather than keeping taxes low to create jobs, it chases ever-higher spending with ever-higher taxes and results in ever-higher debt – an unprecedented, unsustainable increase in red ink. It doubles our national debt in five years, and triples our debt in 10 years.
Put simply: the Democrats’ budget spends too much, taxes too much, and borrows too much from our kids and their kids.
Their budget puts all the sacrifice on future generations. It makes no tough choices. It’s only tough on our children and grandchildren.
But it is not enough for us to just criticize. We must also propose a better way forward. And Republicans have.
The budget House Republicans offered gives Americans a real choice. It curbs spending, creates jobs, and controls the debt.
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.
Our budget gives priority to national defense and veterans’ health care. We freeze all other discretionary spending for five years. We enact a spending cap backed up by tough budget enforcement.
American families are making sacrifices and tightening their belts. Washington should do the same.
Our budget also takes steps toward health care reform and retirement security. Our goal is to make quality, affordable health care accessible to all Americans by strengthening the relationship between patients and their doctors, not with a big government takeover. We will preserve and improve the existing Medicare program.
We have offered a concrete plan – a path to prosperity - to tackle our nation’s problems with innovative and principled solutions. 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.
