Snow isn’t the only thing in DC causing a little chaos. Rep. Paul Ryan, ranking member on the Committee on that Budget, has produced a Roadmap to eliminate the budget deficit. To do it, he turns Medicare and Social Security into voucher programs and cuts benefit increases. From the Executive Summary:
* Preserves the existing Medicare program for those 55 or older.* For those currently under 55 – as they become Medicare-eligible – creates a Medicare payment averaging $11,000 per year when fully phased in. Adjusts the payment for inflation, and pegs it to income, with low-income individuals receiving greater support. Provides risk adjustment, so those with greater medical needs receive a higher payment….
* Preserves the existing Social Security program for those 55 or older.
* Offers workers under 55 the option of investing over one third of their current Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts, similar to the Thrift Savings Plan available to Federal employees. Includes a property right so they can pass on these assets to their heirs, and a guarantee that individuals will not lose a dollar they contribute to their accounts, even after inflation.
* Makes the program permanently solvent, according to the CBO, by combining a more realistic measure of growth in Social Security’s initial benefits, with a gradual, modest increase in the retirement age, consistent with Americans’ improving lifespans.
For some strange reason, the Free Market Cheerleader Club, a.k.a. the Republican Party, haven’t embraced Ryan’s plan. And as of last night — over a week after the plan was debuted and scored by the CBO — according to Talking Points Memo, only nine Republicans have signed on as cosponsors.
What’s the Republican leadership’s problem with this attempt to curb the creeping socialism of Social Security and Medicare? TPM explains:
when asked [on February 4] at a press conference what about Ryan’s budget he disagreed with, Minority Leader John Boehner couldn’t name anything.“Off the top of my head, I couldn’t tell you,” Boehner said.
Despite the apparent lack of substantive disagreement, though, Boehner wants to keep the Ryan plan from sticking to the GOP.
“Paul Ryan, who’s the ranking member on our budget committee, has done an awful lot of work in putting together his roadmap,” Boehner said. “But it’s his. And I know the Democrats are trying to say that it’s the Republican leadership. But they know that’s not the case.”
Will the government keep its hands off Medicare? Stay tuned….
