Durbin: Ryan budget plan does too little on defense spending and taxes

Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) criticized House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget plan as being one-sided and lacking bigger defense cuts or tax increases.
 
“When he doesn’t address savings in the Department of Defense and doesn’t deal with revenue, it results in dramatic cuts in Medicare benefits and Medicaid services,” Durbin, part of a bipartisan group negotiating spending cuts and entitlement reform in the Senate, told The Hill Tuesday morning.
 
Ryan’s budget calls for $78 billion in Pentagon savings recommended by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to go to deficit reduction. 
 
Durbin and other members of the so-called Gang of Six are working on a deficit reduction package that would include cuts to discretionary spending, entitlement reform and tax reform that would raise revenues by eliminating niche tax breaks.
 
Ryan’s plan would set a fixed rate of growth for Medicare spending. He has also called for the program to pay less for the care of wealthy beneficiaries.