Faust, bored
with his life as a highly successful scholar, tried to fool the devil, selling
his soul for for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. He thought he could fool the devil but, at
least in some versions of the story, pays the ultimate price for his trickery
and valuing of human life of the divine. Paul Ryan sells himself as a
no-nonsense “realist” who is simply trying to cut the deficit and improve the
economy over time. But what is he really doing? Looking at his latest budget,
one could argue he is instead doing the devil’s work (or at least the Koch
brothers), in the guise of providing a “Path to Prosperity.” Let’s let a look
at the lowlights …
- Focuses most of its cuts on
programs serving children and families. According to the Center on Budget and Policy
Priorities, at least 69 percent of the Ryan budget’s cuts to non-defense programs
over the next decade would come from programs that serve low-income
children, families and individuals including Medicaid, SNAP, Pell Grants,
the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit, school lunches and
other child nutrition programs.
- Takes food and medicine from
babies to give tax breaks to the rich and corporations. The Ryan budget slashes the
top income tax bracket from 39.6 percent to 25 percent, and reduces the
corporate rate from 35 percent to 25 percent with no way of paying for it.
Meanwhile, the budget proposes cutting food stamps by 18 percent over the
next decade and cuts Medicaid by $1.5 trillion over 10 years and would
effectively eliminate the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the
only health insurance program specifically for children.
- Pushes college further out of
reach for low-income students. The budget proposes cutting Pell grants by more than
$125 billion over the next decade, freezing the maximum grant for students
even as tuition continues to increase.
What a
humanitarian!
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