Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin unveiled an updated House GOP budget plan on Tuesday that he says will help balance the federal budget. The House Budget Committee Chairman hopes to cut $5 trillion over the next decade, starting with repealing President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
The proposal would include cuts to programs like food stamps and Pell Grants for low-income students, as he has suggested in the past, notes Fox News. He would also make major changes to government-sponsored health care for the poor. He tries to keep benefits for the elderly though, at least for the immediate future.
“This is a plan to balance the budget and create jobs, and it builds off a simple fact: We can't keep spending money we don't have,” Ryan said in a statement.
The Washington Post notes that Ryan did not suggest increases in defense spending. He kept with the discretionary spending deal he cut with Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray.
A key part of Ryan’s plan is the repeal of Obamacare. The House GOP believes that a voucher-like Medicare system would keep the federal budget down.
This plan will be Ryan’s last, as the Budget Committee chairmanship is term-limited. He’s hoping to get on the important Ways and Means Committee in 2015 and is also considered a Presidential candidate in 2016 by many.
The White House criticized the plan, saying it “would slow the economy, stack the deck against the middle class and threaten the guaranteed benefits seniors have paid for and earned.”