The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

    Please get real, Paul Ryan

    With all the things that have been dumped on my plate lately, I haven’t paid much attention to the chaos of this year’s presidential election. However, the budget proposed by Paul Ryan, House Budget Committee chairman and Mitt Romney’s choice for Vice President, caught my attention.
    As one might imagine, reading a 93-page document entitled “The Path to Prosperity: A Blueprint for American Renewal” is no small task.  But after reading the introduction, written by Ryan himself, it’s obvious that this man is living in a fantasy world. I’m no financial expert, but chances are that I’ll have coffee with Gandalf and lunch with Grandmaster Yoda before this plan fixes our struggling economy.
    Lately, Republicans have been criticized for not connecting very well with the middle class and this budget proposal, which would greatly reduce the amount of taxes paid by the wealthiest Americans while increasing the burden of middle class households, is further evidence of that. From what I understand, families with an income between $100,000 and $200,000 a year would save about $7,000 from lower tax rates, but eliminating major deductions specific to these families would overrun this meager savings.
    After all of this, married couples will be paying an extra $2,700 annually in addition to the increases due when the George W. Bush tax cuts expire at the end of this year. Meanwhile, houses that earn $1 million a year will enjoy a net tax cut of $300,000.
    Let’s be clear: there is nothing wrong with wealth, as long as you come by it honestly. However, these tax cuts are neither fair nor honest. It is not fair that middle class families have to work a 60-hour workweek to get their children through school and keep soup on the table while people like Kim Kardashian actually make money off of the Internal Revenue Service.
    Furthermore, we (America) need to adjust our attitude about what we should be spending our money on. We claim to be the greatest country in the world when in fact the only thing we lead the world in is incarcerated citizens per capita and defense expenditure. We have a defense budget of almost $800 billion, which is double the amount from when we were squaring off with Russia during the Cold War in 1961. Since then, we really haven’t picked a fight with anyone of that caliber, so why spend the extra $400 billion?
    Making cuts and sacrifices is the only way we will ever bounce back from the downward spiral we have thrown ourselves into. The only problem is that the wrong people are making them.
     

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