Ryan unveils a serious budget proposal for a serious time

For months, while most of Washington was focused on this year’s budget

fight and the prospect of a government shutdown, Budget Committee

chairman Rep. Paul Ryan’s office was working quietly on a Republican

plan to address the nation’s long-term fiscal crisis.

Though Ryan had already offered ambitious entitlement reform proposals

of his own, it wasn’t clear whether he’d be a lot less bold when he

actually had to put together a budget with Republicans in the

majority. One school of thought was that there was no reason for

Republicans to propose major changes to the nation’s entitlements that

would hand Democrats an easy target when those proposals have no

chance of becoming law given Democratic control of the Senate and

White House.