CCAGW Supports Ryan Plan’s Vision for Smaller Government

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) praised House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) fiscal year (FY) 2013 Budget Resolution, titled The Path to Prosperity: A Blueprint for American Renewal.

Chairman Ryan’s plan would reduce federal spending by $5 trillion over the next decade compared to President Obama’s budget, which increases taxes as well as spending and keeps the country on the path to bankruptcy. Chairman Ryan’s budget proposal cuts the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent, reduces the number of income tax brackets from six to two, privatizes Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, reforms Medicare, and caps federal mandatory spending. It would not raise taxes, and would lower the deficit by $3 trillion relative to the President’s proposed budget over the next decade.

“Chairman Ryan’s plan goes a long way toward eliminating wasteful spending and reducing the deficit. It is far superior to the budget projections that have been put forward by the Obama administration in recent years,” said CCAGW President Tom Schatz. “As events in Europe over the past year have made clear, this budget’s proposal to reduce the national debt as a percentage of GDP by 15 percent over the next decade is utterly essential. Its goal of cutting the size of government to 20 percent of GDP by 2015, a benchmark yet to be cleared in any fiscal year by the Obama administration, is also praiseworthy. Indeed, many of the Ryan budget’s proposals have been championed by CCAGW in the past and would constitute important victories for taxpayers in their own right, such as eliminating high-speed rail subsidies, cutting payments to prosperous farmers, and reducing the federal workforce by 10 percent.

“When CCAGW named Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) its January 2012 Porker of the Month, it did so because of his inability to even present a budget – let alone pass one – in more than 1,000 days. The Path to Prosperity stands in stark contrast to Senate Democrats’ ineptitude and President Obama’s reckless budgets. The country is at a decisive crossroads. The fiscal crisis is clearly discernible, widely understood, and eminently avoidable. There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to tackle these issues head on and current fiscal choices will shape the character of the country for decades. While CCAGW would support even deeper cuts that would balance the budget in a decade or less, the perfect must not be the enemy of the good. Chairman Ryan should be commended for presenting a clear, bold plan and for his leadership in a time dominated by stagnancy and squabbling in Washington.”

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.