In an interview that aired Wednesday morning, President Barack Obama rejected the budget proposal put forward by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) as one that achieves balance recklessly.
Obama conceded to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that differences with congressional Republicans may be “too wide,” admitting that if the GOP will only accept new tax revenues under the condition that deep cuts are applied to Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid “then we’re probably not going to be able to get a deal.”
The President argued that Ryan’s proposal to balance the budget within 10 years is a punitive approach because it undermines popular government programs.
“We’re not going to balance the budget in 10 years because if you look at what Paul Ryan does to balance the budget it means that you have to voucherize Medicare, you have to slash deeply into programs like Medicaid,” Obama said, adding that his goal is not “to chase a balanced budget just for the sake of balance.”
