By Michael Linden
Our guest blogger is Michael Linden, Director of Tax and Budget Policy at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
Paul Ryan says we must slash spending. We must do it now, and we must do it dramatically. We must cut 47 percent from education, 32 percent from infrastructure, and 28 percent from scientific research. We must repeal Obamacare, denying health insurance to 30 million people, and then further slash $750 billion from Medicaid. We must cut food stamps, child care support, and housing assistance. We must cut non-defense discretionary spending down to levels we have never before seen in modern history. Paul Ryan says we must do these things because otherwise, “We face the threat of a debt crisis.”
Now, take a look at the terrifying graph of what Paul Ryan says will happen to our national debt unless we adopt his policies:
That’s right. Under Ryan’s own definition of current policies – policies we are currently doing before any of his new draconian spending cuts take place – the debt is already projected to decline for the next six years, and only after that will it begin a slow rise.
This is the horrifying dystopian future that Paul Ryan seeks to avoid with his enormous cuts to anti-poverty programs and middle class protections? You could be forgiven if you find it hard to see a looming “debt crisis” in this graph.
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