The president of a national policy research center criticized a Wisconsin congressman’s federal budget proposal because of the cuts it will make to social welfare programs, despite the plan’s support from many Republicans. 

Bob Greenstein, founder and president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, delivered the lecture in Madison Thursday as part of the the Institute for Research on Poverty Director’s Choice Seminar Series and said the 10-year budget proposal by U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, fails to address poverty because of a lack of options from congressional Republican pressure.

“Ryan doesn’t have a bee in his bonnet ’cause he doesn’t like poor people,” Greenstein said. “His cuts leave him in a situation, where if he is leaving Social Security and Medicare alone, that leaves very few things left on the table to cut from that are acceptable to his party.”

Greenstein said $1 trillion of the $5.3 trillion in budget cuts in Ryan’s plan come from low-income citizens.

Examples of these cuts, according to Greenstein, can be found in Ryan’s suggestion to repeal Medicaid expansions in the Affordable Care Act and cut $100 billion in Pell Grants to help low income students go to college.

“To his credit, Ryan did not repeal the entire Affordable Care Act,” Greenstein said. “He repealed the coverage expansion, but he didn’t repeal the Medicare savings measures under the act. He leaves them on the books.”

Greenstein added Romney’s budget plan goes even further in tax cuts than Ryan’s and promises to balance the budget by 2021, as opposed to Ryan’s, which promises a balanced budget by 2030.

Despite facing criticism from President Barack Obama and many Democrats nationwide, Ryan’s plan has garnered recent support from major Republican leaders, including U.S. Senate candidates such as former Gov. Tommy Thompson and former Rep. Mark Neumann.

Thompson endorsed Ryan’s budget plan in a statement released Monday. Thompson promised to fight for the provision in the Ryan budget that simplifies and reduces corporate income taxes to two brackets: 25 percent and 10 percent.

Thompson’s plan would also build on Ryan’s plan to move to an across-the-board flat tax after two years.

Chip Englander, a spokesperson for Neumann, said Ryan deserves a lot of credit for being a leader on the front stage.

“Look at the people criticizing Paul Ryan’s plan,” Englander said. “Where’s Tammy Baldwin’s plan? It’s raising taxes even more than Obama. She doesn’t have a plan to balance the budget because it’s not a priority to her. ”

Although Neumann’s campaign has not endorsed Ryan’s plan like Thompson has, Englander said both Neumann and Ryan’s plans are trying to address the fiscal crisis.

Greenstein said alternatives to Ryan’s plan, including one from Sen. Kent Conrad, D-North Dakota, would be released within the next week or so. Greenstein ended by explaining the importance of these policy decisions and how this is “not just your average budget debate.”

“We’ve moving into a debate we only see once every quarter or half a century,” Greenstein said “I feel like when I’m looking at all of these decisions on poverty and the economy, it’s a contest for the soul of the nation and what kind of country we ultimately want to be.”