RYAN BUDGET REQUIRES BUDGET BALANCE AND FOOD STAMP RETOOLING

Submitted by: Donald Hank

I see good things in this, but unfortunately, the 'savings' are eaten up and then some by the steadily rising medical costs, 9%/yr. As Dr. Tom suggests, it is an illusion.

Here is a description of hyperinflation (eventually you will want to look for these symptoms. We aren't that far away):

n 1956, Phillip Cagan wrote The Monetary Dynamics of Hyperinflation, generally regarded as the first serious study of hyperinflation and its effects. In it, he defined a hyperinflationary as starting in the month that the monthly inflation rate exceeds 50%, and it ending when the monthly inflation rate drops below 50% and stays that way for at least a year.^[3] Economists usually follow Cagan’s description that hyperinflation occurs when the monthly inflation rate exceeds 50%.^[4]

The International Accounting Standards Board does not establish an absolute rate at which hyperinflation is deemed to arise. Instead, it lists factors that indicate the existence of hyperinflation:^[5]

• The general population prefers to keep its wealth in non-monetary assets or in a relatively stable foreign currency. Amounts of local currency held are immediately invested to maintain purchasing power
• The general population regards monetary amounts not in terms of the local currency but in terms of a relatively stable foreign currency. Prices may be quoted in that currency;
• Sales and purchases on credit take place at prices that compensate for the expected loss of purchasing power during the credit period, even if the period is short;
• Interest rates, wages, and prices are linked to a price index; and
• The cumulative inflation rate over three years approaches, or exceeds, 100%.

Now we have already had a taste of this, in gas prices. Normally we do not apply the definition of inflation to single items, but if we did, gasoline would be found to have hyperinflated ('approaches or exceeds 100% in 3 years.' It did just that after our bungler in chief took over. And gasoline affects all other prices--wihch is why the Fed refuses to include gasoline and food in the infllation index. It is all a lie).

Don Hank

 

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 http://www.breitbart.com/big-government

Growth Agenda: Ryan Budget Balances in 10 Years

by Mike Flynn 12 Mar 2013, 7:10 AM PDT 360

This morning, House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan unveiled the latest GOP budget blueprint. The plan cuts $4.6 trillion over the next decade, bringing the budget into balance by 2023. The principal savings in the plan come from a repeal of ObamaCare.

Washington's budget debate is premised on the notion that solving the deficit is complicated and requires a series of unpleasant choices. Ryan's budget blueprint puts a lie to that notion. Current budget baselines assume an annual 5% increase in federal spending. Ryan's budget holds the annual increase to 3.4%. A yearly increase above the rate of inflation is hardly a step down the path to austerity. 

Almost half the savings in the Ryan budget come from a repeal of ObamaCare. Eliminating Obama's new health care entitlement saves $1.8 trillion over the next decade. 

Another $1 trillion in savings come from making basic reforms to existing health care entitlements, Medicaid and Medicare. Ryan's plan block-grants much of Medicaid to the states, giving them greater flexibility to provide health care to recipients. In many ways, the plan builds on the success of President Clinton's welfare reform in the 1990s. That program gave states greater flexibility to design programs to move people out of welfare and into jobs. 

Ryan's Medicare reforms reduce federal spending by introducing greater competition into the senior's health insurance market. The plan mimics the health benefits of federal workers and members of Congress, who select from a range of coverage options. The federal government would provide full premium support for a basic package of coverage, allowing seniors to select plans that best meet their needs. 

Ryan's budget provides a good framework for evaluating the choices we face in bringing down our budget deficit. The choices aren't nearly as dire as Democrats and Obama often present them. Rather than sacrifices, it provides choices. Like everything else in our lives, greater choice provides better services at lower cost. Government does not operate in an alternative universe. 

The left will no doubt demagogue Ryan's budget. They can only do so by denying the economic forces that shape every other aspect of our life. 

 

 

Ryan Budget to 'Retool' Food Stamps, Welfare

by Matthew Boyle 12 Mar 2013, 7:07 AM PDT 171

A detailed description obtained by Breitbart News of House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan's new budget will angle to drastically reform the U.S. Department of Agriculture's food stamps program.

Ryan's budget aims to "retool" the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps, by taking much of the program's power away from the federal government and handing it over to individual states, according to the budget description.

First off, the budget "eliminates the incentive for states to sign up as many recipients as possible."

Then, after the economy has recovered, Ryan's budget calls for SNAP to turn into a block grant program for states.

"After employment has recovered, it converts SNAP into a block grant, indexed for inflation and eligibility," the Ryan budget description reads. "This reform allows states to tailor their programs to their recipients' needs. And it encourages states to help recipients find work."

In addition to those reforms, the Ryan budget "calls for time limits and work requirements."

The committee said SNAP's "flawed structure" needs reform because "states receive more money if they enroll more people in the program-so their incentive is to get people onto the rolls," while states "have little incentive to help people get off the roles and find work. In fact, these programs make it harder to become independent."

The Ryan budget also calls for the reinstatement of the work requirement for another welfare program, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.

President Barack Obama gutted the welfare work requirements, passed during Bill Clinton's presidency with bipartisan support while Newt Gingrich was the Speaker of the House, last year. Many in the media, and Obama himself, claimed during the last election that Mitt Romney's campaign ad claiming Obama "quietly ended" the welfare work requirement was not true. 

But right before Clinton took the stage at the Democratic National Convention, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) determined that Obama had in fact fundamentally changed that aspect of welfare.

In the 91-page document laying out Ryan's budget, the House Budget Committee said the Obama administration's decision to gut the welfare reform work requirements was done "in contravention to current law."

"This budget rescinds any authority the administration thinks it has to provide for waivers of the work requirement of the TANF program," the description reads. "It assumes that President Clinton and the Republican majority at the time were correct in requiring robust work requirements for the TANF program-which led to the largest sustained reduction in child poverty since the onset of the 'Great Society.'"

The actual specifics of the budget will not be available until later on Tuesday, after Ryan's committee takes it through markup.