Today, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) unveiled his budget plan for the coming fiscal year. The Ryan budget calls for shifting the tax burden to the middle class and seniors while providing fewer services, and builds in giveaways to the wealthiest, including corporations and Big Oil.
Among the experts at CAP Action who can speak to the Ryan budget proposal are:
CAPITOL HILL BUDGET PROCESS
CAP Action’s Senior Fellow Scott Lilly, former staff director of the House Appropriations Committee, has recently written on the ongoing harm caused in the budgeting process, including how ‘Nonsecurity’ Spending Cuts Could Be Hazardous to Your Health: Reckless Budgeting Puts Americans at Risk.
BUDGETING POLICY, DEBT, AND DEFECIT
CAP Action’s Vice President for Economic Policy Michael Ettlinger and Director for Tax and Budget Policy Michael Linden have written expansively on how to budget wisely at the federal level, and what slashing spending could mean for the programs that are critical to Americans. They recently asked “Will the Budget Process End Where the House Leadership Started?” describing how the budget process may in fact end up where it started and have outlined their own plan line by line on how to bring the budget into primary balance in A Thousand Cuts.
CAP Action’s Economic Policy Editor for ThinkProgress.org Pat Garofalo has blogged extensively on the Ryan Roadmap, including a fact check of the congressman’s response to the state of the union, clarifying how the Roadmap raises taxes and cuts benefits for seniors; explaining how the Ryan Roadmap would set tax rates higher for the middle class than for the wealthy; and showing that under the Roadmap plan, most Americans would payer higher taxes while the country is driven $2 trillion farther into the red.
MEDICARE AND MEDICAID, ACA IMPLEMENTATION FUNDS
CAP Action’s Chief Operating Officer and former senior advisor for health reform at Health and Human Services Neera Tanden and CAP Action’s Senior Fellow and policy professor from Georgetown University Judy Feder have both written extensively about Medicare and Medicaid, and can speak to the burdens of vouchers and premium support on beneficiaries. A recent piece from CAP on the Ryan Roadmap proposal and its impacts include the Tolls on the Ryan Roadmap which explains how the Roadmap would Increase Medicare premiums by 30 percent.
ENERGY TAX EXPENDITURES AND THE ELIMINATION OF PROGRAMS LIKE THE EPA
CAP Action’s Senior Fellow and Director of Climate Strategy Daniel Weiss will be available to comment on the need to close unnecessary subsidies to Big Oil. Chairman Ryan suggested in a recent interview that these corporate tax loopholes would remain untouched in his budget proposal. Among his numerous columns explaining the need to eliminate subsidies to the profitable oil industry to save an estimated $4 billion per year are Oil Profits from Pump Pain, Invest and Grow, and Big Oil’s Lust for Tax Loopholes.
FUNDING FOR CRITICAL COMMUNITY PROGRAMS
CAP Action’s Half in Ten Manager Melissa Boteach has written about the effects of cuts to programs that help children, women, and seniors make ends meet in tough economic times. In her role at Half in Ten, she has worked with grassroots groups to champion programs key to fighting domestic hunger and helping families maintain their current rung on the economic ladder.
To speak with CAP Action experts on the Ryan budget proposal and what it will mean, contact Megan Smith at [email protected] or Christina Dipasquale at [email protected].
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