The Painful Truth About the Romney-Ryan Budget

As Mitt Romney travels through Wisconsin ahead of the state’s Republican primary on Tuesday, he is joined by Paul Ryan, architect of the Republican plan to end Medicare as we know it.

Ryan’s support for Mitt Romney isn’t surprising – they both support the same key budget proposals that would hurt the middle class to preserve tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires. To protect tax loopholes that benefit oil companies, hedge fund managers and the very wealthiest Americans, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are willing to break our promise to our seniors that the guaranteed coverage they have worked for and paid for will be there for them in retirement and have advocated for arbitrary, massive cuts to programs critical to economic security. This short-sighted approach doubles down on the same failed Republican policies that led to our nation’s economic crisis and will scorch the earth for advancements in education, research, green energy and technology.

The burden of the Romney-Ryan budget will be borne by those who can least afford it. Analysis of the Romney-Ryan budget by the non-partisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows that the planned benefit cuts, such as the block granting of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) would primarily affect low-income families with children, seniors, and people with disabilities, and could lead to a significant increase in hunger and poverty.

In Wisconsin, this translates to cuts of $1.89 billion to SNAP over the next 10 years; 844,000 program enrollees would be at risk of losing vital nutrition assistance at the same time their health care coverage is at risk and drastic cuts are made to public education – the single greatest tool for lifting children out of poverty.

At the same time, Scott Walker and his Republican Party have slashed a staggering $2.6 billion from public education and more than $500 million from healthcare programs to pay for $2.3 billion in tax giveaways to out-of-state corporations and the super-rich.

The Romney-Ryan budget is a stark reminder that budgets show our priorities. Put in perspective, every $150,000 tax break for a millionaire could instead pay for any one of the following: food for a family of four for 19 years; basic cervical cancer screening for nearly 4,000 women; an 83% down-payment on the average single-family home in the United States; a four-year college degree for five students. 

Unfortunately, the Republican priority is preserving the status quo for the wealthiest Americans at the expense of keeping the promise of health care for our seniors, investments in programs that benefit working families and preserving the social safety net for those in need.