House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan released his budget plan The Path to Prosperity Tuesday, which he said would put the country on a path to a balanced budget while spurring economic growth. His proposals include the repeal of Obama's healthcare reform the Affordable Care Act, the transformation of federal social welfare programs like Medicaid and food stamps into block grants for states to run their own programs, and an overhaul of Medicare for the next generations of beneficiaries that would give them "premium support" to use for private insurance programs of their choice. It would also reform the tax code, setting income tax rates at 10 percent and 25 percent, and the corporate rate at 25 percent, while eliminating loopholes and subsidies.
The House plan will not be taken up by the Senate—Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad insists that last year's Budget Control Act that raised the debt ceiling essentially established the budget for 2012 and 2013. Thus Ryan's budget is more or less a political document that Republicans will campaign on going into the 2012 election as an alternative to President Obama's current policies. Democrats are already panning the Ryan's proposals, with the progressive group Americans United for Change releasing a trailer for a a mock movie Young Guns II: The Return of Coupon Care deriding the GOP plan.
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