President Obama and Paul Ryan are in a duel

“Dueling Long-Term Plans

President Obama has jumped into the debate over long-term fiscal responsibility with a plan that differs sharply from the one unveiled earlier this month by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), chairman of the House Budget Committee. In a welcome move, Obama last week also called for high-level, bipartisan negotiations aimed at developing a concrete plan to stabilize the debt-to-GDP ratio by the end of June.

Obama is pushing for his new plan outside of Washington, including Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, but he is unfortunately doing so in campaign-style events that will stoke partisan emotions. The plan would eliminate many tax breaks, cuts hundreds of billions of dollars in both domestic and defense spending in the coming decade, allow the Bush tax cuts for high-income people to expire, and try to curb the growth in Medicare and Medicaid spending.

Last week the House approved Ryan’s plan – which also promises even more deficit reduction while revamping Medicare and Medicaid -- without a single Democratic vote and with no chance of Senate approval.

Now that both parties have laid down their policy markers, it would be helpful if the President could use his appearances around the country to explain the dimensions of the fiscal challenges and lay the groundwork for the bipartisan cooperation that will be essential to reaching solutions.

On Monday Standard & Poor’s provided a reminder of the need for such solutions when it lowered its outlook for the credit rating of the United States from “stable” to “negative.” This raises the possibility that the country could eventually lose its top AAA rating. An S&P analyst noted that U.S. policymakers continue to disagree “on how to reverse recent fiscal deterioration or address longer-term fiscal pressures.””

“Paul Davis Ryan, Jr.[1] (born January 29, 1970) is the U.S. Representative for Wisconsin's 1st congressional district, serving since 1999. He is a member of the Republican Party and has been ranked among the party's most influential voices on economic policy.[2][3][4]

Born and raised in Janesville, Wisconsin, Ryan graduated from Miami University and worked as a marketing consultant and an economic analyst. In the 1990s he worked as an aide to United States Senator Bob Kasten, a legislative director for Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, and a speechwriter for former Congressman, and Vice Presidential Nominee Jack Kemp of New York. He won a 1998 election to succeed two-term Representative Mark Neumann in the United States House of Representatives.

Ryan is the chairman of the House Budget Committee, where he has advocated for his Roadmap for America, a long-term spending reduction proposal which has received mixed endorsement from his party. He is one of the three co-founders of the Young Guns Program, an electoral recruitment and campaign effort by House Republicans.

The Obama administration proposed his 2012 budget on February 14, 2011. Paul Ryan played a prominent public role in drafting and promoting a competing budget plan. The official name of the competing plan is The Path to Prosperity, and was made public on April 5, 2011.

Member of theU.S. House of Representatives
from Wisconsin's 1st district

Incumbent

Assumed office 
January 3, 1999

Preceded by

Mark Neumann

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Chairman of the House Budget Committee

Incumbent

Assumed office 
January 3, 2011

Preceded by

John Spratt

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Born

January 29, 1970 (age 41)
Janesville, Wisconsin

Political party

Republican

Spouse(s)

Janna Ryan; 3 children

Residence

Janesville, Wisconsin

Alma mater

Miami University (B.A.)

Occupation

Marketing consultant
Political assistant

Religion

Roman Catholic

Website

U.S. Congressman Paul Ryan