Slashes These Programs by Two-Fifths in 2026
The House Republican budget plan, which could come to the House floor in April, would prove especially harmful to low- and moderate-income families and individuals, cutting programs for such people by an unprecedented amount while taking a strikingly unbalanced approach to deficit reduction. It also would be inconsistent with statements of Republican leaders like House Speaker Paul Ryan that reducing poverty is a top priority... In addition, the plan would secure 62 percent of its budget cuts from low-income programs even though they account for just 28 percent of total non-defense program spending (and just 24 percent of total program spending, including defense)... While cutting supports and services severely for Americans of lesser means, the budget would secure no deficit reduction at all from the more than $1 trillion a year in tax credits, deductions, and other preferences, collectively known as “tax expenditures” — which disproportionately benefit high-income households and which former Reagan Administration economics adviser (and Harvard professor) Martin Feldstein has called the most wasteful part of the budget... Cuts in low-income entitlement and discretionary programs likely account for about $3.7 trillion — or 62 percent — of the $6.0 trillion in non-defense cuts... Speaker Ryan used similar wording about spending on poverty programs in an interview with Katie Couric in advance of the forum.[11] The House budget plan, however, starkly contradicts these sentiments... Moreover, the House Republican plan ignores what should be one of the largest sources for deficit reduction: tax expenditures. These are the $1.2 trillion a year in deductions, credits, and other preferences that former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan called “tax entitlements” and former Reagan economic adviser Martin Feldstein said are the best target for cutting wasteful government spending. Tax expenditures tilt heavily toward the affluent, with half of their benefits going to the top fifth of households.
Ryan’s Mystery Meat Budget
Paul Ryan (R-WI), who released a fiscal plan that airily promises both trillions of dollars in tax cuts and a nearly balanced budget within a decade, but never says how he’d get there.
Ryan isn’t saying that his budget implies cuts of $4.6 trillion in popular tax deductions, credits, and exclusions over 10 years, according to new estimates by the Tax Policy Center. And that ignores the $5.4 trillion in revenue lost from permanently extending the 2001/2003 tax cuts.
Ryan proposes big, specific spending reductions such as cutting Medicaid in half and slashing other federal spending (except for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid) by nearly 75 percent from current levels by 2050. But his budget still can’t add up without eliminating or sharply scaling back those popular tax preferences. Which ones, it seems, remain a state secret.
.. Actually, he’s wrong. There is an emerging bipartisan consensus to embrace lower rates without ever saying how to pay for them.
Trump’s Hill surrogates: Stop attacking Ryan
Trump blasted Ryan during a Florida rally Wednesday — just the latest in a series of attacks aimed at the House speaker in recent days — accusing the Wisconsin Republican and other GOP leaders of turning their backs on him because “there’s a whole sinister deal going on.”
But just hours before on a conference call among several dozen Trump Hill surrogates and Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, several lawmakers argued that criticizing Ryan isn’t productive, according to a source on the call who is close to the campaign.
.. the focus needs to be on why Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are different; not fighting between Donald Trump and Paul Ryan,’” the source recalled. “The focus of our efforts need to be on the enemy, not self-inflicted fire.”
.. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.), who voted for Ryan on the House floor earlier this year, tweeted that he’d withdraw support for the speaker over the recent spat with Trump.
.. Trump warned supporters “this is the last time you’ll ever have a chance to save our country,” going on to criticize Ryan and other party leaders for not reaching out after Sunday’s presidential debate.
.. Trump also took a shot at Ryan’s leadership position on the Bill O’Reilly show Tuesday night, implying that he might not be House speaker next year if the real estate tycoon wins the White House. But it was unclear exactly how Trump thought Ryan would be removed.
.. Many members, even if they don’t like the idea of abandoning the GOP nominee, understand the precarious position Trump continues to put Ryan in
Ryan cozies up to Trump
The speaker and GOP nominee will appear together on the campaign trail for the first time.
.. Paul Ryan has kept his distance from Donald Trump all year long — occasionally taking him to task, only reluctantly endorsing him and rarely uttering the presidential nominee’s name at the Republican National Convention. But that all changes on Saturday when the two hit the campaign trail together for the first time — an appearance that could reverberate politically for the House speaker beyond the weekend event in Wisconsin.
.. After that, it read: “Presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump will also join Wisconsin Republicans” at the festival.
.. Ryan has been more upbeat about Trump in recent days that he had been. The speaker complimented Trump’s performance in the first debate, even as other Capitol Hill Republicans said it was severely lacking. And he refused to chastise Trump after he criticized a former Miss Universe for gaining weight.