The House Budget Committee Plan

The House Budget Committee is looking at the 2012 budget. This is the place where almost every economist says we need to get serious about cutting the deficit and the national dept. According to Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House committee, the plan would cut $4 trillion over the next decade.

Well, at least we’re talking about the right kind of numbers. The question is how. The plan won’t be released until Tuesday so I suppose we’ll have to wait for details until then but, according to Ryan, the plan (1) addresses Medicare and Medicaid increases, (2) returns discretionary spending to 2008 levels and caps it based upon GDP and (3) pro-growth tax changes.

I don’t have a problem with (1) and (2) but (3) is often Republican jargon for increasing taxes on the working and middle classes while decreasing them for the rich and corporations under the Supply Side fiction that this will create jobs.

Demand grows the economy not supply. How come Republicans believe in Capitalism when it means taking away nickels and dimes from the poor but not when it means subsidizing corporations and the rich with $10s and $20s?

Still, I think I’ll reserve final judgment until I see the details.