The most shocking aspect was its radical rewrite of America’s social contract. To reduce the deficit, Ryan prescribed massive cuts in government spending, 62 percent of which would come from programs for the poor, even though these programs accounted for only about a fifth of the federal budget. According to a New York Times analysis of a similar, later version of Ryan’s budget, 1.8 million people would be cut off food stamps, 280,000 children would lose their school lunch subsidies, and 300,000 children would lose medical coverage.
