Republican Leaders Want More Taxes...On People Like You and Me

Rep. Paul Ryan, a Republican authority on spending and taxes, made a dramatic break Thursday with the deficit and debt reduction plan released the day before by President Obama’s commission.

“I think it goes backwards,” Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican and the next chairman of the House Budget Committee, said at a breakfast with reporters sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor.

“I think it makes health care dramatically worse. And look, I’m trying to be guarded in my comments because I really respect what [commission co-chairs] Erskine [Bowles] and Alan [Simpson] have done. They should be commended. But they didn’t deal with health care.”

Ryan’s comments are the most unconditional rebuke of a plan that has been regarded even by conservatives on the commission as fairly conservative because of its recommendations on cutting spending in some parts of the budget, and on reform of Social Security and the tax system so that rates can be dramatically lowered.

Ryan, whose acumen with budget data has elevated him over the past year to become a leading figure in the GOP, acknowledged positive progress on these other issues, but said they were overshadowed by an acceleration of the health-care system put in place under Obama’s new law passed in March.

“It takes a few steps forward on social security and taxes and discretionary [spending], but it takes many steps backwards in health care. And that’s the big thing,” he said.