During today's Associated Press luncheon, President Obama explained what's inside the Ryan Republican budget—"a budget so far to the right it makes the Contract for America look like the New Deal."
The fact that the Ryan budget would end Medicare as we know it has gotten a lot of attention, but President Obama offered a sampling of what else we can expect under the Ryan budget: The year after next, 10 million college students would see their financial aid reduced by more than $1,000 each. More than 200,000 kids would miss out on early education through the Head Start program. Two million mothers and young children would lose access to healthy food. And the government would no longer have the capacity to enforce laws that our air, water, and food is safe.
As President Obama put it, "By gutting the very things we need to grow an economy that’s built to last—education and training, research and development—it’s a prescription for decline."
According to Ryan and the Republicans, our money is better spent on millionaires and billionaires. That's why they're proposing more than a trillion dollars in tax giveaways for the wealthiest Americans—with an average of $150,000 in tax cuts for each millionaire in the country.
"Let's just step back for a second and look at what $150,000 pays for: A year's worth of prescription drug coverage for a senior citizen. Plus a new school computer lab. Plus a year of medical care for a returning veteran. Plus a medical research grant for a chronic disease. Plus a year's salary for a firefighter or police officer. Plus a tax credit to make a year of college more affordable. Plus a year's worth of financial aid. $150,000 could pay for all of these things combined—investments in education and research that are essential to economic growth that benefits all of us. For $150,000 that would be going to each millionaire and billionaire in this country. That budget says we'd be better off as a country if that's how we spend it.
"This is supposed to be about paying down our deficit? It's laughable."
Need a reason to knock on doors or attend a phone bank this year? Here it is: This a budget that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has called "marvelous."