Paul Ryan of Janesville said Sunday his new budget will promote the repeal of Obamacare and balance the federal budget in 10 years.
Ryan, appearing on "Fox News Sunday" said Americans were owed a balanced
budget, and his proposal as chairman of the House Budget Committee would
include enough cuts to get there in 10 years.
Ryan said the focus of the ObamaCare repeal would be to stop the
expansion of Medicaid, which serves low-income U.S. families.
Elsewhere on the Sunday talk shows, Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson said
President Barack Obama's dinner with Republicans last week was "a good first
step" to reaching an agreement on the country's budget problems.
Speaking on ABC's "This Week," Johnson said the dinner was "an honest,
frank, pretty complete discussion about the problems facing this nation."
"So many times, we're talking about different numbers," Johnson said. "We
first have to agree on the facts and figures."
Johnson was one of a dozen Republican senators who dined with Obama at
the Jefferson hotel in downtown Washington Wednesday. Johnson spoke about it
as a panelist "This Week" along with Democratic National Committee chair Rep.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman.
A key point of discussion is whether a debt reduction plan should include
new taxes.
Asked by host George Stephanopoulos if he would be open to more revenues,
Johnson replied: "If you take a look at an entitlement reform package, I might
look at that. But we already have a trillion dollars (in taxes) hitting us in
Obamacare."
Obama also shared a meal with Ryan as part of his outreach to influential
congressmen -- an effort many observers say is long overdue.
Krugman was skeptical that Obama's outreach to Republicans would lead to
an agreement.
"This is about a fundamental difference in visions of what America has
got to be," he said. "One side wants to privatize Medicare and Social
Security. The other wants Obamacare to go into place. That's not something
you're going to solve with a few dinners."
