But now cuts to those programs have to pay for the deficit reduction, the increased defense spending, and the tax cuts. That means the cuts to those programs have to be really, really, really deep. The authors have no other choice.
In Ryan’s plan, for instance, revenues are approximately $2 trillion below the levels in Obama’s budget, spending on defense is about $200 billion higher, Social Security is unchanged, and Medicare is about $200 billion lower. So that’s approximately $2 trillion in lost revenues that need to be made up — and then Ryan reaches for more than $3 trillion in deficit reduction atop that.
So the cuts to programs that mainly help the poor are correspondingly deep. The $1.5 trillion the Affordable Care Act was going to spend on subsidizing health insurance for low-income Americans is gone. But then Medicaid and other non-Medicare health programs take an $800 billion cut on top of that. Education and worker training loses $200 billion. Income security loses $800 billion. These are huge cuts.
And that’s just in the first 10 years. As time goes on, the scheduled cuts become much deeper in programs for the poor than in programs for the rich.
READ MORE:
via Wonkbook: Why the Republican budgets make the poor pay – The Washington Post.