Unpacking The Obama And Ryan Budget Plans

Two big budget plans now on the table — President Obama’s and Rep. Paul Ryan’s. We look at which would take us where.

Last week, Republican budget-meister Paul Ryan put his deficit-cutting cards on the table. Yesterday, it was President Obama’s turn.

The president began by kicking the daylights out of the Ryan plan. Pessimistic, he said. Unfair.Practically un-American. Then he laid out his $4 trillion in deficit-cutting.

Ryan hit back fast on the President’s plan. Partisan, inaccurate, inadequate, he said. But it’s all on the table now, for Congress — and Americans — to decide.

This hour On Point: The choice. The Obama way, the Ryan way, and what each would mean for the deficit and the country.

Guests:

Linda Bilmes, professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, where she teaches budgeting and public finance. She was chief financial officer and assistant secretary for Management and Budget at the U.S. Department of Commerce from 1999-2001.

Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and director of the Fiscal Policy Program at the New America Foundation.  The Wall Street Journal has called her “an anti-deficit warrior.” She served as social security adviser to Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign in 2000.