In laying out the Republican budget plan for next year, U.S. House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has done a favor for voters of every political stripe — Republican, Democratic and especially independent.

Politics is about priorities and priorities are measured by the way a nation — or a family or an individual, for that matter — allocates its resources. More than any platform the Republican Party might adopt at its convention in late August, the Ryan budget is a pledge written in bright colors.

The House is expected to take up and pass Ryan's budget next week. It then will go to the Senate, where it will die. It will be back in the fall campaign, like Banquo's ghost, to haunt Republican candidates. "It will have blood," MacBeth said of the ghost, "they say, blood will have blood."

Republican candidates, particularly those in tight races, must know that by voting for the Ryan budget, they are signing on to a document that could bloody them. It would:

— Repeal health care reform and again make it legal for insurance companies to deny coverage to children with preexisting conditions, rescind coverage when people get sick and place absurdly low limits of how much lifetime coverage people can get. Women again would face higher insurance premiums than men.

— Renege on the promise of secure insurance coverage for America's elderly; Medicare coverage would get more expensive and all but the wealthiest recipients almost certainly would find themselves priced out of the private market — at the time of their lives when they need coverage the most.

— Cut spending for children's health insurance in half.

— Cut funds for Pell grants, putting higher education farther out of reach for middle- and lower-income students.

— Reduce 2 million slots in Head Start programs over the next decade.

— Cut programs for clean energy by 19 percent while continuing $40 billion worth of tax breaks for big oil companies in the next decade.

— Cut $1.2 trillion over 10 years from non-health mandatory programs. What's that mean? Fewer food stamps. Fewer Medicaid payments for the disabled and elderly poor. Cuts in the school lunch program. Cuts in unemployment insurance.

— More spending, not less, on defense.

Well, Ryan's supporters say, we have to get spending under control. His budget would cut the deficit to $166 billion by 2018, but after that it would begin rising again. That's because he would cut the top individual and corporate marginal tax rate to 25 percent. That's an average saving for the wealthiest taxpayers of $150,000 a year — far more for the super-rich.

Ryan firmly believes that safety-net programs — food stamps, Medicaid, family support payments, unemployment insurance — are turning into a "hammock," creating a culture of dependency. He believes Americans would rather loaf than work. This is a terribly cynical view of working-class America, but it's now Republican doctrine.

The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that by 2050, the Ryan budget essentially would zero-out spending on everything except the Pentagon, Medicare and Social Security.

That's where the Republican Party stands now. It's worth keeping in mind.

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