A small group, organized by the Onondaga County Democratic Committee, protested outside the Onondaga County Republican headquarters in Syracuse over Paul Ryan’s 2015 federal budget proposal. Area Democrats are upset about entitlement cuts while Republicans insist balancing the budget is a good idea.
About 12 people showed up to protest “Path to Prosperity,” the Republican budget that cuts about $5 trillion of federal spending over the next ten years.
A bipartisan budget agreement, co-authored by House of Representatives Budget Committee Paul Ryan, was already signed into law at the end of last year that sets the spending levels for 2015.
Tom Dadey, chairman of Onondaga County Republican Committee, says this new budget proposal is meant to set the tone of the Republican Party moving forward.
“The tenets of the Republican Party are fiscal responsibility, less taxation, less government, less spending and the Paul Ryan blueprint gets us to that over the next 10 years. We can’t continue to spend money that we don’t have,” said Dadey.
A balanced budget is something that Will Sudderth, the executive director of the Onondaga County Democratic Committee, can agree with. He says he just doesn’t want it balanced on the backs of seniors and the middle class. “Path to Prosperity” repeals the Affordable Care Act and changes Medicare to offer seniors a lump sum for private insurance.
“It doesn’t help or do any good for infrastructure building for central New York or anywhere else. Another big issue it touches on is Pell Grants and student loans, makes it harder for students to get those loans and pay them back and they’re just getting more and more expensive,” said Sudderth.
The House of Representatives plan to vote on the Ryan budget tomorrow.