[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Page 11493]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             THE RYAN PLAN

  Mr. JOHNSON of South Dakota. Madam President, I quote former Reagan 
Economic Adviser Bartlett on the House Republican plan.

       Distributionally, the Ryan plan is a monstrosity. The rich 
     would receive huge tax cuts while the social safety net would 
     be shredded to pay for them. Even as an opening bid to begin 
     budget negotiations with the Democrats, the Ryan plan cannot 
     be taken seriously. It is less of a wish list than a fairy 
     tale, utterly disconnected from the real world, backed up by 
     make-believe numbers and unreasonable assumptions. Ryan's 
     plan isn't even an act of courage. It is just pandering to 
     the Tea Party. A real act of courage would have been for him 
     to admit, as all serious budget analysts know, that revenues 
     will have to rise well above 19 percent of GDP to stabilize 
     the debt.

  Former Reagan administration economic adviser Bruce Bartlett from 
Capital Gains and Games Blog, ``Imbalanced Budget.''
  I would clarify the impact of the balanced budget proposal. He has 
called it sheer idiocy. That comes from the former Reagan economic 
adviser.

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