REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI)
Member
Rep. Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, is serving his sixth term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Ryan is the Ranking Member of the Committee on the Budget, and is a senior Member of the Ways and Means Committee.
Rep. Ryan is the author of Congress’ only comprehensive economic and fiscal reform legislation, called “A Roadmap for America’s Future,” which lays out a long-term plan to address the nation’s massive shortfalls in health and retirement entitlement programs, to reform the problematic tax code, and to alleviate the future debt crisis. (You can read the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of the plan here.)
While Ryan’s Roadmap focuses on reducing unsustainable spending – rather than raising taxes – to right the nation’s economic and fiscal imbalances, the Congressman has been criticized not only by Democrats, but by his own party on a recent key spending vote: Rep. Ryan voted for the much-maligned Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) . Some fiscal conservatives have also criticized his “Roadmap” because it contains a “business consumption tax,” which, they say, is essentially a value-added tax (VAT) for job creators.
Rep. Ryan has said he’s skeptical of what the Fiscal Commission can get done: “While I have serious concerns about what this commission can actually achieve, I hope it spurs a genuine effort to tackle the looming crisis of unsustainable entitlement spending, the greatest threat to our nation’s fiscal and economic future.”
Tags: budget committee, Congress, deficit commission, fiscal commission, House, house budget committee, National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility & Reform, Paul Ryan
