My take is that the Ryan House budget simply allows business as usual in Washington to continue and does not go far enough to deal with our debt and deficit problems. Under this plan, the government will still run a very substantial deficit that is only marginally smaller than Obama’s preferred budget. Moreover, even if one assumes it is movement in the right direction, it doesn’t move things very far in that direction as compensation for all of the flak Republicans will have to take (and are already taking) for it. If your plan is going to get described so negatively and with such hyperbole, you might as well propose something big as your starting point for negotiations. To paraphrase the warning Mel Gibson’s character in the Patriot gives to his son, “aim small, miss big.”
I’m with Marc here; the Republican position on budgetary policy is “An echo not a choice.”
PILEUS 
With all due respect, and it has been a while since I’ve seen the movie, but I believe the line is, “aim small, miss small.” As a shooter, if one looks at the whole target–big–one tends to aim–and miss–big. If, however, one focuses just on the center of the bull’s eye–small–one will miss small.
Otherwise, I agree completely. If conservatives are going to be blamed for ending the world, then they should actually propose policies that will.
Yes, that is why I paraphrased. I meant to be cute — the R’s are missing big by not shooting (pun intended) for a bigger set of cuts and changes.
That’s just me, being dense on what is now the very obvious word play.