WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- The chairman if the U.S. House Budget Committee Sunday gave a lukewarm reception to President Obama's latest plan to curb government spending.
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Obama had thus far not hit the brakes hard enough following two years of significant spending increases in the midst of a recession.
"It sounds like the similar budgets that he has been giving us the last couple of years," Ryan said on Fox News Sunday.
Ryan contended that the White House had raised domestic discretionary spending 24 percent over the past two years, and that doesn't even include the hefty cost of the economic stimulus program. He said freezing spending at those levels was not much of a savings plan.
"We'll see the details of this budget Monday, but it looks like to me that it is going to be very small on spending discipline and a lot of new spending so-called investments," Ryan said.
Ryan added that it was the president's responsibility to come up with a decisive and realistic budget plan, and that failing to follow through with the voter's wishes was "abdicating his leadership."
