term radical mentioned in relation to this plan today. so how controversial is this all going to get on the hill? for democrats it s going to be quite controversial, but you have heard a lot of criticism of republicans over the last few months, they don t stand for anything, they re the party of no, they have no solutions. despite what you may think of this doum and dcument and despi fact it radically alters medicare and medicaid, this does have a pathway forward in terms of significant debt reduction just from looking at the numbers of what they ve put into it. that is why it s elicited the praise of folks like joe lieberman from connecticut, an ind independent. he says i don t agree with all of it but at least it s a start. as far as political fodder though, thomas, the thing i find interesting about this and a lot of folks have told me this, 2012, this is the gop budget, this is going to be saddled with the republican nominee for the
in cuts over a ten-year period, also major reforms. do you feel that that is a really legitimate and also an achievable goal? absolutely. we have scoring from the cbo. we have input from think tanks like the heritage foundation. this is a combination of adding revenue by increasing jobs, lowering the tax rates, but broadening the tax base. taking out loopholes in the tax system, and at the same time creating a more competitive system when it comes to medicare and also block granting medicaid so governors and legislators will be in much better positions to do what s best for their state and save money rather than unfunded mandates which is what we have today. congressman, while i have you here i want to address the reports we ve been seeing about bp applying for deep water drilling permits.
and in addition, a government shutdown would produce tremendous harm to those individuals who most need our help, including military families. so i think the fact that the republicans are out there just repeating their talking points, the democrats want a shutdown, is ludicrous and i m hopeful we ll be able to avoid it. if not i think the gop will suffer disproportionately. i think a lot of people would agree with you on all fronts it wreaks with inefficiency. in speaking with luke russert about this major proposal paul ryan is putting on the table, including over 6 trltz $6 trill cuts, major reforms to taxes, k medicare, medicaid. how much support will this get from gop leadership? i think it will get a lot of support from gop leadership because republicans realize we have to get our fiscal house in order. we can t spend money we don t have and unless you address the real challenges of entitlements,