President Obama said during Tuesday comments on the federal budget that his goal was to fix the economy — not balance revenues with expenditures.
“My goal is not to chase a balanced budget just for the sake of balance,” he said to ABC News. “My goal is how do we grow the economy, put people back to work, and if we do that we are going to be bringing in more revenue.”
He made the comments in context of discussing Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget proposal, which balances the budget over the course of 10 years. He called Mr. Ryan’s budget an unworkable repeat — a “reprise of the same legislation” he’s brought to the House before, Mr. Obama said, in a Politico report.
“We’re not gonna balance the budget in 10 years,” Mr. Obama said. “If you look at what Paul Ryan does to balance the budget, it means that you have to voucher-ize Medicare, you have to slash deeply into programs like Medicaid.”
Mr. Obama also said Mr. Ryan’s budget called for higher taxes on the middle class. Mr. Ryan has claimed his budget plan is balanced — and that it accomplished fiscal solvency without raising taxes.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.