–House Budget Chief Offers 10 Bill Package To Overhaul Fiscal Policy
–Rep Ryan: ‘Broken Budget Process’ Hurts U.S. Fiscal Policy
–U.S. ‘Is Stumbling From Budget Crisis To Budget Crisis’
By John Shaw
WASHINGTON (MNI) – House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan
Wednesday said substantial political will and a new regime of budget
rules are needed if the U.S. is to avert a “European type debt crisis.”
“We don’t want to be Europe,” Ryan said at a briefing to unveil the
House Republicans’ 10 bill budget process reform package.
But Ryan said the U.S. has its own serious problems. “Washington is
stumbling from budget crisis to budget crisis,” he said.
“This is a broken budget process,” Ryan said of the current fiscal
rules, adding that American fiscal policy is at a “complete impasse.”
Ryan said the House GOP’s package has three main goals: cut
spending, improve oversight and increase transparency.
Ryan said the bills will move individually through the House Budget
Committee early next spring, adding that he would like them to be
approved by March of 2012. One bill dealing with line item vetoes will
be approved this year, Ryan said.
The package includes a measure to create binding limits on federal
spending, eventually capping federal spending at 20.8% of GDP in a
decade.
Another bill creates a two year budget cycle while another creates
a mechanism to avoid government shutdowns if there is an impasse on the
regular spending bills.
Ryan said President Obama “wasn’t serious” this year on most of the
key fiscal issues, ranging from his budget to his support of the
so-called Super Committee.
On another matter, Ryan said there is reason to doubt the
“efficacy” of a payroll tax cut as a tool to stimulate the economy.
** Market News International Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **
[TOPICS: M$U$$$,MFU$$$,MCU$$$,M$$CR$,M$X$$$]
