Paul Ryan: Hiding Spending Doesn’t Reduce Spending

“I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits — either now or in the future.” (Remarks by President Obama to a Joint Session of Congress, September 9, 2009) This afternoon Budget Committee Ranking Member Ryan walked through why the bill put forward by Democrats FAILS the President’s deficit test. — The Majority Leader said the bill scores as reducing deficit by 1 billion over the next 10 years. First a little bit about CBO: I work with them every single day; very good people; great professionals. They do their jobs well. But their job is to score what is placed in front of them. And what has been placed in front of them is a bill that is fill of gimmicks and smoke and mirrors. Now what do I mean when I say that? First off, the bill has ten years of tax increases and ten years of Medicare cuts to pay for six years of spending. The true ten year cost when subsidies kick-in? .3 trillion. The bill is full of gimmicks that more than erase the false claim of deficit reduction: – billion of savings is claimed by counting increased Social Security payroll revenues. These dollars are already claimed for future Social Security beneficiaries, and claiming to offset the cost of this bill either means were double-counting or were not going to pay Social Security benefits. – billion in savings is claimed from the CLASS Act long-term care insurance. These so-called savings are not offsets, but rather premiums collected to pay for future benefits. Senate …

This is the story about a small film production company who fought against fruit giant Dole when the film BANANAS!* was to be stopped at any cost. From lawsuits to bullying scare tactics and media control, altogether a dreadful eye-opener about what a big corporation will do in order to protect its brand.