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Reid says Ryan's budget 'is anything but fair'
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday criticized Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget plan as the “same old approach” that voters rejected in November.
“It’s déjà vu all over again. We’ve seen this show before. The Ryan Republican budget will shower more tax breaks on millionaires … and raise taxes on the middle class,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “He’s pulled the wool over the eyes of the people of the House and they continue to follow him, but his budget is anything but fair.”
Ryan released his new budget Tuesday that would cut spending by $5.7 trillion in order to balance the budget within 10 years. The budget chairman said the cuts are "hardly draconian"
and would lead to the country to greater prosperity.
“This is not only wrong approach but same old approach,” Reid said. Reid once again criticized Ryan for “ending Medicare as we know it” — something Democrats used against Ryan while he was running as vice president with Mitt Romney.
The GOP chairman's plan for Medicare gives people 54 and younger the option of purchasing private insurance on an exchange and receiving "premium support" payments.
“By living beyond our means, we’re stealing from the next generation. By promising a higher standard of living today, the federal government is guaranteeing a lower standard of living tomorrow,” Ryan wrote in the budget. “Unless we change course, we will have a debt crisis.”
But Reid said Ryan used accounting gimmicks that harm the middle class to come up with his $5.7 trillion in savings.
“It’s the same fuzzy math,” Reid said. “It relies on accounting that is creative at best and fraudulent at worst to inflate its claims of deficit reduction."
Reid said that the Senate Democrats' budget will be a "balanced" plan with tax increases and spending cuts. That blueprint is expected to be released later this week.
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