Statement by AFSCME President Lee Saunders on Ryan GOP Budget

Ryan Budget is nothing more than a time machine ride back to financial instability

Paul Ryan and House Republican leaders are not fooling anyone. The so-called “new” Ryan GOP budget is just more of the same outdated, ill-advised, backwards thinking ideas that Americans have soundly rejected time and time again.

Ryan’s budget sells out the middle class in order to give new freebies to big corporations and the super-rich. Vouchering Medicare, cutting Medicaid for the most vulnerable, and increasing Medicare costs for beneficiaries will not move our economy forward. In fact, independent analysis predicts it will chop 2 million jobs by 2014. Cutting education, slashing health care and disrupting child nutrition and other vital programs while not closing one single tax loophole is a lopsided approach that would spell disaster for millions of Americans.

The economy may be recovering, but a budget like Paul Ryan’s is nothing more than a time machine ride back to financial instability. There is too much at stake to play these games with the federal budget. The Ryan budget would hurt families, kill job growth and send the economy back into a tailspin. We need solutions that support the middle class by protecting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and other vital services from harmful cuts.