ACU’s Cardenas: Ryan’s Budget ‘Austere but Generous’

American Conservative Union Chairman Al Cardenas is applauding Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget blueprints, saying it gives Americans a clear alternative over the proposals of the Obama administration.

Speaking to Newsmax TV at CPAC 2013, Cardenas said it presents Americans with a dramatic contrast to the Democrats’ spending proposals that have been endorsed by the Senate.

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“We compare it to Patty Murray’s budget in the Senate. First time in five years they even had the decency to come up with a budget,” he said.

“[Obama] calls for a trillion and a half dollars of additional taxes on the American people, he has no appetite for cutting costs, and, after raising an additional trillion and a half dollars, doesn’t balance the budget, ever.

“I mean, who wants that in America?”

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Cardenas said Ryan’s blueprint could be characterized as austere in some ways, but he applauds the fact that it balances the budget in 10 years.

“Paul Ryan does defund Obamacare. Frankly, it’s an austere but generous, in a way, budget. And he gets us to balance our budget within a 10-year time frame,” Cardenas said.

CPAC, which began Thursday and runs through Saturday, features several high-profile speakers, including Sens. Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul.

“Boy, it’s an abundance of riches,” Cardenas said. “We’ve got Sen. Marco Rubio and Rand Paul back-to-back. We’ve got Sen. Mike Lee. We’ve got Allen West, a Floridian who’s very popular with our audience. We’ve got a lot of exciting speakers on the main stage.

“But the real secret of this conference are the four other things going on at the same time as our main ballroom. We’ve got incredible panels with senators, members of Congress, the intellectual lead of the conservative movement talking about very exciting issues today,” Cardenas said.

Cardenas said that though the GOP is going through a rough spot, he looks to Ronald Reagan and the 12 speeches he gave at the annual conference, which included times when things looked even bleaker for conservatives.

He particularly mentioned Reagan’s 1975 speech. “He gave a rousing speech and gave out a pretty good plan of work as to how we get to the summit and win.”

Now, he said, it is time for someone to dust off the Ronald Reagan game plan and “hopefully help shed some light on how we get to the summit once again.”

For Cuban-born Cardenas, a practicing Catholic, the conference comes just one day after the election of a new Pope. He said that he is particularly pleased that Francis hails from Latin America.

“But the most important thing, after all, is the fact that he believes in a traditional doctrine and he wants to keep the church close to its traditional values, and that’s what we need.”

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