Ryan says, "close tax loopholes to spur growth, not to enlarge government."

Yesterday, House budget chair Paul Ryan said on “Fox News Sunday”:

By continuing to raise taxes to fuel more spending, you’ll never get tax reform, which is critical for economic growth and job creation. And so yes, we have an impasse right now, which is that the president wants to continue raising taxes not for deficit reduction, but to fuel more spending, and we see tax reform as an incredibly important goal in policy, to getting pro-growth economics, to getting business growing again and to hiring people. Tax reform to us is an economic growth-generating exercise.   .   .

I do believe there is a consensus for tax reform. There are a lot of moderate Democrats, especially in the Senate, that are in favor of lowering tax rates by closing loopholes. That's what we are proposing. Stop picking winners and losers in Washington. Let people keep more of their hard-earned money. You don't lose revenue for the federal government. And you make it easier for small businesses to create jobs and hire more workers. We think there is a bipartisan consensus for that and I'm hoping the president comes to join that consensus.

Obama wants to close tax loopholes benefiting the wealthy, in order to underwrite more government spending. Ryan and Republicans instead want to lower tax rates, especially the corporate tax rate now at 35% the highest in the developed world, in order to fuel private sector growth and investment.

“Tax reform” to Ryan means using Obama's desired loophole closing to finance lower tax rates, and to do so during this time of unbalanced budgets by keeping net taxes where they are now. Ryan is not, as some Republicans want, asking to lower total tax collections, nor does he want to raise them, as Obama advocates.

Ryan’s goal is economic growth.  And if you want economic growth and jobs, Ryan's tax reform path of exchanging loophole closing for lower rates is the road to follow.