"They literally think you can just balance it, you know, by cutting waste, fraud and abuse, foreign aid and NPR, and it doesn't work like that."
-- House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), quoted by the Washington Post, on lawmakers and Tea Party activists who believe the deficit can be reduced without substantial cuts to Medicare and Social Security benefits.
At least Representative Ryan is right that we can't balance the budget by ending fraud and waste while cutting discretionary spending. However, I love that the chairman of the House Budget Committee doesn't know that Social Security doesn't add to the deficit. And I'll add one more thing. Representative Ryan literally thinks you can balance the budget by cutting taxes. It doesn't work like that.
