Comparing the Ryan budget with the deficit commission and Obama's deficit plan

Ryan Streeter

Today's Wall Street Journal article on the Gang of Six's developing deficit plan contains a useful graphic.

It compares the Obama, Deficit Commission, and Ryan budget plans for reducing the deficit.

Consistent with partisan sucker punches that characterize this debate, we might call the lesson here "black and blue." The black sections of the bars represent how much of the deficit would be addressed through tax reform (i.e., mainly tax increases), and the blue represents reductions in health care spending.

In fact we might call the Ryan plan The Green Plan, since that's what you get when you mix blue and yellow. Health care reforms, mandatory program changes, and reductions to non-defense discretionary spending (also green on the bar) set his plan apart from the other two.

The chart below is a bit fuzzy, so you can click through to the WSJ full page graphic if you want to read the fine print.