Republicans present alternative budget proposal

WASHINGTON — American families are having to sacrifice, and Republicans say the federal government should follow their example.

Budget plans offered by Republicans hold down deficits while addressing the struggling economy, health care and retirement security, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin said Saturday in the Republican radio and Internet address.

“The budget House Republicans offered gives Americans a real choice,” said Ryan, top Republican on the House Budget Committee. “It curbs spending, creates jobs and controls the debt.

“American families are making sacrifices and tightening their belts. Washington should do the same.”

Ryan said Republicans are trying to do just that.

“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.”

Obama’s Democratic allies passed plans Thursday broadly supporting the administration’s agenda of higher spending on domestic programs like education and overhauling the health care system. Twenty House Democrats, mostly from GOP-leaning areas, abandoned Obama on the final vote due to unhappiness over deficits.

House Republicans lost a vote last week on their alternative budget, with more than three dozen of the chamber’s more moderate members defecting from the GOP in a 293-137 tally that rejected cuts to Medicare and the Medicaid health care program for the poor and disabled.

But Ryan said Democrats’ budget plans will raise deficit spending to unacceptable levels.

“The president’s budget, which passed the House and Senate this week, will make the crisis much, much worse,” he said. “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.”

Ryan said the GOP budget gives priority to national defense and veterans’ health care and freezes all other discretionary spending for five years. Democrats just put off tough decisions, he said.

“Their budget puts all the sacrifice on future generations,” Ryan said. “It makes no tough choices. It’s only tough on our children and grandchildren.”