Politico
Paul Ryan: Focus on ‘achievable goals’
By David Rogers
10/24/13

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said Thursday he is encouraged by his early talks with Senate Democrats and hopes the two parties can skip past “grand bargains” and focus on “achievable” goals such as substituting entitlement reforms for sequestration cuts this winter.

“We need to focus on achievable goals,” Ryan told POLITICO. “If we spend our time talking about a grand bargain, we will fall far short, because that will require each party to insist on the other compromising its core principles. And in this divided government, we’re not going to do that.”

“If this becomes just an excuse to raise taxes, it’s not going to be successful,” he warned Democrats. “We already have spending cuts coming. We’ll take those. If we can have smarter spending cuts, that’s better.”

The first round of sequestration last March has already brought discretionary spending down to about $986.7 billion. A second round in January would cut an additional $20 billion approximately — largely from defense.

Implicit in Ryan’s remarks is a warning that Republicans won’t back away from sequestration simply to protect defense. But the chairman was clearly signaling he is open to a good-faith bargain in which mandatory savings can be substituted for appropriations to restore more order for both sides.

Ryan made his remarks in a short telephone interview as he began to reach out to reporters in advance of the House-Senate budget talks beginning Oct. 30. Negotiators have been given a Dec. 13 target date to report back to Congress, and the top four conferred by phone this week.

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