Gary Johnson Rips Into Murray-Ryan Budget Deal

Former Gov. Gary Johnson of New Mexico, the Libertarian presidential candidate in 2012, weighed in on Friday morning to attack the budget deal crafted by U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.

In the last 48 hours, Republicans and Democrats in Congress have announced, and are hurriedly passing, a federal budget for next year that they are proudly claiming will reduce the deficit by $20 billion, Johnson emailed supporters on Friday. Are we supposed to be impressed? The deficit for 2013 alone is almost $700 billion, and of course, the total debt is more than $17 trillion And these folks are crowing about a deal that will save $20 billion.

They just dont get it, Johnson added. They spend weeks and months negotiating a deal, and declare victory when they come up with a net savings that is little more than a rounding error in the overall, unsustainable debt they have themselves imposed upon us.

I dont know about you, but I wont be satisfied until they start talking about and enacting spending cuts that will actually get us to a balanced budget -- and this one doesnt even come close, Johnson continued. The disturbing part about all this hand-wringing over a rounding error is that it shows, once again, that virtually no one in Washington, D.C., has the courage to tell the truth -- and act on it. Cutting hundreds of billions from the federal budget actually isnt that difficult. First, we must stop spending money we dont have on foreign aid and military interventions that are not making us more secure. Second, we have to deal with the reality that, without reform, entitlements are promises we simply cant keep.

Until these realities are put on the table, all of the deals and funny math the politicians are coming up with are frankly meaningless, Johnson insisted. Continuing to saddle us with debt and, in the process, destroying our economy are the greatest threats to liberty and freedom that we face from our politicians today.

Johnson has kept the door open to making a second presidential bid in 2016,