"Man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: 'As government expands, liberty contracts.'"
Ronald Reagan, Farewell Address
January 11, 1989
Last Friday, the House Republican's adopted The Path to Prosperity: Restoring America's Promise, Budget Chairman Paul Ryan's strategy to right America's listing fiscal ship of state. By adopting a Budget, John Boehner's House met their Constitutional obligation; a requirement Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats ignored in the last Congress.
But, the Ryan Budget goes far beyond just checking a box on a "to-do" list, and then becoming an ignored, meaningless dust-collector on the shelf in the Congressional archives. Ryan's budget strikes a blow for freedom. This budget is the GOP's defining moment. It charts a new course, a serious plan to return to fiscal responsibility. Most importantly Ryan's budget re-orders the government-first doctrine currently in place. It begins to move the needle in the direction of re-establishing the sovereignty of the people and federalism as envisioned by the Founders.
The preservation of individual liberty and freedom should be the guiding light for every member of Congress, as it was for the Founding Fathers. But, both parties have supported an increasing amount of government control and coercion at the expense of individual liberty. It happened on Republican's watch, and the outraged voters retaliated in 2006 and 2008. Democrats offered "hope and change" but instead they further expanded government's intrusion on individual liberty and more than tripled the rate of deficit spending. Again, the voters responded with a historic rebuke of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid abuses by tossing out scores of incumbent Democrats and electing a historic number of conservatives in 2010.
America's message was not for a few adjustments at the margins, but for a change of direction and a return to our Founding Principles. The Declaration of Independence establishes the "Right of the People to alter or to abolish" government whenever it becomes "destructive" of the "unalienable rights" of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The Right to "alter or to abolish" is not to be used frivolously. "Prudence, indeed will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes," wrote Thomas Jefferson. In fact, the Founders granted, "mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."
However, when government "abuses and usurpations" become so excessive and the will of the people is ignored, the people are within their right, in fact, "it is their duty" said the Founders, "to throw off such Government, and provide new Guards for their future security." American voters took such action last November, and Ryan's budget is the first big step in creating a new "Guardian" of the people's liberties.
Ryan starts by repealing ObamaCare; the greatest assault on individual liberty and the private sector economy in the history of our nation, and $6 trillion of reduced spending. Democrats responded with their typical outrageous fear mongering.
Chart is available here http://budget.house.gov/fy2012budget/
Nancy Pelosi accused Ryan of "throwing many seniors out of nursing homes." The head of the Democrat National Congressional Committee, Debbie Wasserman Schultz went even further claiming Ryan "would put senior citizen's lives at risk." For the record, there are no "death panels" established in Ryan's budget. That is a Democrat idea.
Ryan simply believes seniors are at least as capable as Pelosi and Wasserman Schultz to select the health care plan best suited to their needs. That's why Ryan recommends a transition to the same freedom to choose from a menu of approved private plans as members of Congress and other federal employees enjoy under FEHB, the Federal Employees Health Benefits plan. Just as with FEHB, Ryan would provide seniors with a premium support contribution (about $15,000 per year) and the freedom to select from a menu of qualified private plans.
Federal employees consistently praise FEHB, and particularly the individual choice it provides them to select the insurance plan best suited for their family. When I was a member of Congress, countless FEHB participants told me, "Whatever you guys (Congress) changes about health care, just don't change mine."
However, last week at Georgetown University, Obama attacked Ryan's plan by pledging it would never happen on his watch. So, does he believe seniors are less capable of choosing their health care than federal employees, or does he believe federal workers are a second class of citizens less deserving of the same care seniors now receive under Medicare? It has to be one or the other.
Except for the ruling class of Central Planners in Washington, most of us understand that in addition to strict limitations, the government that works best is the government that is closest to the people. You solve problems where problems exist. But, that flies in the face of the Washington-knows-best philosophy that has prevailed and is embraced by Obama and his statist disciples.
Ryan recognizes that the various states are more aware of the needs of their citizens, more flexible, and more accountable for administration of Medicaid services than the federal government can ever be. He also has more faith in folks in the states than Obama apparently does to be the "incubator of good ideas." Had the Founders even envisioned the government being involved in health care, they most certainly would have left it to the various states to administer.
That's why rather that a one-size-fits-all Washington prescribed Medicaid system that perversely rewards over-enrollment and abuse, Ryan would block grant Medicaid funds to the states allowing them the freedom to design and deliver health care services to the needy in the most efficient manner possible. Ryan would transition other welfare programs to state block grants, as well; a monumental nod to states rights. And, he'd pull the plug on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the federal agencies that have cost hundreds of billions in bailouts after failed policies led the way to the financial collapse of 2008.
Ryan understands that lower taxes and less regulation mean more individual freedom, which translates to economic expansion in a free-market system. He knows that the government's obsession with subsidies and loopholes for decades, effectively picking winners and losers within the economy, distorts equity and the freedom to choose necessary for true market vitality. Ryan would eliminate these artificial loopholes while lowering the corporate tax rate, currently the highest among developed nations, to a more reasonable 25% rate, thus providing a huge incentive for job creation and business investment.
In praise of Ryan's budget, Charles Krauthammer called Ryan's plan "brave and profoundly forward-looking." Krauthammer observes that the Ryan offers "classic tax reform… (it) is one of those rare public policies that produce social fairness and economic efficiency at the same time."
Economists at the Heritage Foundation estimate the policy changes in Ryan's budget would create a million jobs already next year and reverse the drain of American jobs going offshore. The dignity of work, rather than the bondage of government dependency, is a cornerstone principle of Ryan's budget.
Ronald Reagan understood, as "government expands, liberty contracts." Ryan gets it, too. Obama's spending spree has pushed government's bite of the total economy to nearly 25 percent of GDP. Ryan would reduce government below 20%, back to the size it was for the 60 years following World War II, the greatest years of economic growth and the advancement of freedom in the history of the planet. By the end of the decade, the need to borrow would be reduced from the current 42 cents of every dollar spent by Washington to just 8 cents, and importantly on a path to disappear completely.
At Georgetown, the President played his favorite class-warfare card again, calling for huge tax increases on the "wealthy" even eliminating deductions for charity to churches, schools, and hospitals. "Most wealthy Americans agree with me," Obama said apparently able to channel the will of millions of Americans. "It's just Washington hasn't asked them to." Ryan understands that keeping taxes low and removing uncertainties encourages investment and allows people and business to make their own decisions within a free-market economy. It worked under John Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush.
Ryan's plan would get the economy going again by providing real reduction in the size of government, lower tax rates, restore individual freedom to choose, and certainty in the market place that has been too turbulent for too long. Deficits are shrunk, debt returned to manageable levels, and sanity restored. Ryan's plan stands in stark contrast to the failed stimulus, encroaching regulations, private industry seizures, and trampling of the Constitution by the current Administration.
Dan Henninger of the Wall Street Journal says "Nothing like Paul Ryan's budget …has been heard from a Republican since February, 1981, when Ronald Reagan issued his presidency's first budget message." Both budgets, Henninger explains, "announced a clear break with the Washington status quo."
Ryan's budget honors the abilities, wisdom, and strength of the individual, affirms trust in the free-market economy, renews a commitment to federalism, and a reverence for American Exceptionalism.
Could Ryan have cut deeper? Yes. And, notably absent is a plan to reform Social Security, although Ryan and Speaker Boehner are both on record for pledging to tackle that entitlement program in this Congress, as well. Rather than chastise Ryan's budget for what it is not, conservatives fearful for the future of the Republic should celebrate what it is. Ryan has demonstrated that he was listening to "we the people" and he drafted a budget in accordance with their will.
By embracing Ryan's budget, Republicans proved they "get it." Meanwhile, every House Democrat voted against Ryan's budget, reaffirming their arrogant disregard for the people's will. They did not get the message of November, 2010. Any chance for passage in Harry Reid's Democrat controlled Senate is nil.
So, this is Ryan's moment on behalf of those of us who believe in an America that was, and can be again. It defined the dramatically different vision for America held by today's GOP and the Obamacrats.
To implement his good ideas, Ryan needs more help. In November, 2012 Americans will again exercise the "Right of the People to alter or abolish" government that is "destructive" of the sacred "unalienable rights" guaranteed to every citizen. May we make the most of the opportunity
