Links
[1] http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/294035/critical-look-ryan-plan-veronique-de-rugy
[2] http://budget.house.gov/UploadedFiles/BLUEPRINT_FINAL_3192012.pdf
[3] http://reason.com/blog/2011/04/10/five-budgets-for-a-broke-down
[4] http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/paul-ryans-spending-plan/
[5] http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/294035/critical-look-ryan-plan-veronique-de-rugy#
[6] http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/267988/what-take-away-trustees-reports-veronique-de-rugy
[7] http://reason.com/blog/2012/03/20/medicare-under-the-ryan-budget-plan
[8] http://keithhennessey.com/2012/03/21/comparing-the-ryan-and-obama-long-term-deficits-and-debt/
A Critical Look at the Ryan Plan
This article was originally published in National Review Online [1]
The overwhelming response coming out of the free-market movement is that the proposed Ryan plan [2] is great. And parts of that plan are good. But I thought the only way I can add something productive to this conversation is by pointing out how this plan isn’t doing nearly enough to reduce the size of government and make our lives and the lives of our children and grandchildren better.
I apologize in advance to all of you who think that we should only be encouraging Chairman Ryan who, after all, is one of the very few members of Congress who has had the courage to talk about reforming Medicare. But I think this is not the time to compromise. Considering the situation we are in today, the size of government, the level of our debt, the continuous violations of our economic and personal freedoms, free-market advocates should be breathing fire everyday and fight for truly smaller government. This plan isn’t enough.
Please, understand that I am not ignoring the good things in this plan. But many people have already uncritically written about them. And let’s be honest, considering the circumstances, I was hoping for more, much more. Considering the level of compromises and the amount of watering down that Congress will do once they put their hands on this or any budget, the original document should have been much stronger.
For a good piece on the Medicare-reform part of the plan you can read Reason’s Peter Suderman here [7]. For positive feedback you can read Keith Hennessey here [8].