In response to the same question Dan posed in his earlier post, House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) told reporters:
“When we put our policy out in October, [going] off the Obama [budget] levels — which is the only thing we had at the time, because there was no Democrat budget…that saved $100 billion then,” Ryan said. “We are halfway through the fiscal year now, a continuing resolution occurred and so the score of that policy is not $100 billion anymore, it’s something lower than that.”
Ryan said the new figure was “in the ballpark” of $60 million. “Its scoring has changed,” he said. “Republicans haven’t changed.”
“We made a covenant. We said there were certain things we were going to do when we were running for office. We have a moral obligation to do those things now that we’re in office, in the majority.”
“We will be cutting $100 billion-plus over this calendar year when it comes to fiscal year 2011, and our appropriations coming this summer for fiscal year 2012,” he said. “So if you think we’re stopping shy of $100 billion in cuts you’ve got another thing coming.”