This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, February 12th, 2010.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan wants to rein in federal spending.

His new proposed budget plan would take on several parts

in the federal budget where President Obama dares not tread, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social

Security. Chris Edwards, Director of Tax Policy Studies, at the Cato Institute, evaluates Ryan's

proposal against the Obama plan.

Well, if we don't make serious reforms in the federal budget, the Congressional Budget Office

says that by 2050 federal spending is going to rise from the current level of around 20% of GDP up to 42% of GDP.

The size of the government will double if you throw state and local government on top of that,

a few decades down the road, we're talking about a government United States that steals half

of all the income of hard-working Americans.

So Paul Ryan, a representative from Wisconsin, has an alternative.

He calls it a roadmap for America's future, and he would keep the government at about the

same size it is currently today particularly with radical reforms to the

entitlement programs and tax reform.

Isn't it a little unrealistic?

I saw some projections on an op-ed that Paul Ryan had written.

Isn't it a little unrealistic to project spending levels as a share of GDP out 60, 70 years?

No, in fact, the government's better at projecting spending out two or three decades from now on entitlement programs, then they are

figuring out what next year's deficit is. Because in the short term you've got

economic gyrations up and down, but in the long term you've got these hard facts about demography.

...