Last week, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Budget Committee, unveiled the House Republican budget proposal for fiscal 2015. Touted as a fiscally conservative alternative to the Obama administration’s budget request, the austere budget proposal would slash more than $5 trillion in federal spending over the next decade.
While the House Republican budget proposal, or Ryan budget, almost certainly won’t make it into law for as long as U.S. President Barack Obama is in office, the spending plan is seen in Washington as a repository for Republican ideas — including on the future of U.S. foreign aid. Ryan, the 2012 Republican nominee for vice president, is known to be considering a bid for the White House in 2016, stoking speculation that the Ryan budget may very well be a blueprint for a future Republican administration.
Concerned by the Ryan budget’s impact on U.S. foreign aid spending, some leading voices in the U.S. development community have already expressed disappointment at the proposal.