Paul Ryan: Obama Budget Cuts ‘Really Not Entitlement Reform’ - East Idaho News
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Paul Ryan: Obama Budget Cuts ‘Really Not Entitlement Reform’

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Getty 100312 PaulRyan?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1365681004801Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — If President Obama’s new budget is intended to lure Republicans back into budget talks, particularly with proposed changes to Social Security and Medicare that have already riled up the left, Rep. Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, isn’t convinced.

“I don’t know if I would say that he cracked the door on entitlement reform,” Ryan told ABC News.  “He has proposed to change a statistic, which saves money.  That is really not entitlement reform.”

Ryan, who is headlining the annual dinner for pro-life women’s group the Susan B. Anthony List Thursday night, said he was disappointed by the president’s budget proposal, which he called “status quo.”  But asked whether Republicans would offer a compromise that could aggravate conservatives, like giving ground on raising taxes, Ryan said his party has already angered its base.

“The fiscal cliff, I would argue, already did that,” Ryan said. “That wasn’t really popular.”

Ryan, who became one of the leading figures in the Republican Party after being selected as the vice presidential nominee last year, said that he has not ruled out seeking the party’s presidential nomination in 2016.  But he said that he was focused on his work in Congress, particularly the nation’s rising debt burdens.

“You never know what comes in the future,” he said.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

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