Romney-Backed Ryan Budget for the 1% Passes House
In a strictly partisan vote this afternoon, House Republicans passed Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget-for-the1% plan. The 228-191 vote didn’t draw a single Democrat.
While the proposal has no chance of passing in the Senate, it serves as a stark example of Republican priorities, including those of presidential candidate Mitt Romney who has endorsed Ryan’s plan.
On taxes, a new analysis by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center finds that people earning more than $1 million a year would receive $265,000 apiece in new tax cuts, on average, on top of the $129,000 they would receive from the Ryan budget’s extension of President George W. Bush’s tax cuts.
The new tax cuts at the top would dwarf those for middle- and lower-income families. After-tax incomes would rise by 12.5 percent among millionaires, but just 1.9 percent for middle-income households.
While rewarding the wealthy with generous tax breaks, the Republicans’ budget doesn’t forget their corporate friends. It cuts their taxes and even offers tax breaks to move jobs overseas.
The Ryan/Republican budget plan would end Medicare as we know it and shift the health care cost burden to seniors. It also endorses significant cuts in Social Security benefits for middle-class seniors.
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) says the Republican budget would cut vital safety net spending to record lows, including:
security spending; safety net programs; most of the funding for the enforcement of consumer protection, environmental protection and financial regulation; and practically all of the federal government’s civilian public investments.


