This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, March 20, 2012.

I'm Caleb Brown.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan is out with his annual budget blueprint.

Chris Edwards, Director of Tax Policy Studies at the Cato Institute says the plan in general

moves in the right direction on spending and taxes, but focuses too little attention on terminating

activities that are properly state, local, and private

functions.

Well, the Paul Ryan plan would trim total federal spending from $3.62 trillion this year to 3.53 trillion next year.

So a modest trim in federal spending.

That figure is about 24 billion less than President Obama has proposed.

Over the next 10 years, the Ryan plan would increase spending from about 3.6 trillion this year to about 4.9 trillion

10 years from now. That's about a 3% annual growth rate. So the Paul Ryan

budget doesn't actually cut spending it

increases it modestly at about 3% a year over the next decade.

One thing about this plan that's interesting is that it's very gradual in how it moves federal spending, federal

outlays, and a lot of programs from where they are now which is in many cases

dramatically higher than they have been historically.

Is it problematic that these transitions out of these programs are so gradual?

Certainly the Paul Ryan plan is not radical by Cato Institute standards. It is a gradual modest sort of

mainstream reform. So 10 years from now, for example, total federal spending under the Paul Ryan plan would be just 13% less than proposed

by President Obama in his budget this year.

So we're likely to hear, read in the newspapers that Paul Ryan slashes and cuts and

...