by Maureen Fiedler
Here we go again! Paul Ryan has issued yet another Draconian budget plan. NETWORK, the Catholic social justice lobby, immediately issued a press release calling it flatly “immoral.” In fact, NETWORK says it’s worse than his previous budgets which were protested by “Nuns on the Bus.”
Ryan’s philosophy is simple: take from the poor and give to the rich. Here’s how the Associated Press reported it:
“House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan unveiled an updated Republican budget plan Tuesday that would slash $5.1 trillion in federal spending over [the] coming decade and promises to balance the government's books with wide-ranging cuts in programs like food stamps and government-paid health care for the poor and working class. Ryan's plan would also cut Pell Grants for low-income students and pensions for federal workers.”
Ryan actually begins by making the Affordable Care Act null and void, thus sending those 7.1 million new health insurance enrollees back to square zero.
Ryan claims to want to balance the budget this way.
But he seems to think that those folks at the top of the income ladder need new tax breaks! So his plan cuts both individual and corporate tax rates for the wealthy. It also increases military spending. Where have we heard all this before? The earlier Ryan budget, of course!
Now, truth be told, this budget will go nowhere in the Congress. It’s dead on arrival, except among the right wing in the House. And it has not even a prayer of passing the Senate. It’s really a political ploy in an election year, or maybe part of Ryan’s strategy for getting the Republican nomination for President in 2016.
Of course, Ryan is a Catholic. His plan leads me to wonder if he’s read anything that Pope Francis is emphasizing these days about the needs of the poor and Catholic social justice teaching.
