–Romney Hails Rep. Ryan’s Expertise on Fiscal Matters
–Ryan: Must Reverse ‘Unsustainable’ Fiscal Policy
–Ryan: ‘We Are Running Out of Time’ To Fix Budget

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, the
presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Saturday named House Budget
Committee Chair Paul Ryan to be his vice presidential running mate.

In an event in Norfolk, Virginia, Romney touted Ryan’s work on
fiscal issues in Congress as one of his central strengths.

In his remarks, Ryan focused on the nation’s economic struggles,
especially its fiscal woes.

“We are on an unsustainable path. It doesn’t have to be this way,”
Ryan said. “We are running out of time.”

Ryan is a respected but controversial figure in Congress. He is the
author of the main Republican fiscal blueprint which contains deep
spending cuts and sweeping entitlement reforms, especially focused on
Medicare and Medicaid.

Ryan supporters have called his fiscal agenda bold and aggressive.
They say it frontally attacks the problem of rising federal spending.

But critics say the Ryan budget is unbalanced and even reckless.
They say he attacks only one half of the fiscal problem — spending —
but does not balance the federal budget for almost 30 years, not until
2040.

Ryan has hammered President Barack Obama relentlessly this year for
presiding over four consecutive years with annual deficits of more $1
trillion, arguing the U.S. now faces a “tidal wave of debt.”

This spring Ryan said his budget alternative would cut spending by
$5 trillion more than Obama’s budget would over a decade and would
reduce deficits by $3.3 trillion more than the president’s budget.

Ryan’s budget makes deep cuts in the projected growth of federal
spending and calls for the fundamental overhaul of Medicare, Medicaid
and welfare programs. It also calls for repealing the 2010 health care
law.

His plan calls for extending the Bush era tax cuts and undertaking
fundamental tax reform in which the current six individual rates are
collapsed into two rates, 10% and 25%. The corporate rate would be cut
to 25%.

He also proposed enacting a package of spending cuts to prevent the
$110 billion in across-the-board spending cuts that are scheduled to
begin next January, the so-called sequestration plan.

It secured some of its savings by cutting the federal workforce by
10% over three years, freezing federal pay through 2015, slowing the
growth of federal financial aid for college students and focusing it on
low-income students.

Ryan has been the chair of the House Budget Committee since 2011.
He represents a district in southern Wisconsin.

He was a member of the Simpson-Bowles commission, but he opposed
the final package, saying it did not overhaul Obama’s 2010 health care
law and included additional revenues.

Ryan was a strong supporter of the GOP’s controversial debt ceiling
strategy in 2011 which took the nation to the brink of default and
helped create the sequestration process that Congress is now trying to
reverse.

Republicans say their debt ceiling strategy helped focus the
nation’s attention on the U.S.’s fiscal woes and secured more than $2
trillion in deficit reduction without raising taxes.

** MNI Washington Bureau: 202-371-2121 **

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Mitt Romney has chosen Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, as his vice presidential running mate.

As budget chairman, Ryan has proposed a controversial plan to rein in entitlement spending. That plan will provide a target-rich environment for Democrats to use to try and scare senior citizens but it is a clear sign that Romney plans to tackle the building US budget crisis as the baby-boom generation begins to retire.

Bond vigilantes will applaud the pick while fans of the welfare state will be apoplectic. The choice is somewhat risky for Romney, but it will clearly illustrate that the incumbent has done nothing during his term to deal with a looming crisis accept accelerate it by expanding the welfare safety net. Given the situation in Europe, a powerful political case for overdue reform can be made.