What's in it? A few interesting things.C'mon guys. Let's draw some blood over this. The GOP wants to privatize Social Security and to end Medicare and replace it with vouchers. Even my one-year old nephew can win that fight. This is a beachball over home plate.
First, it calls for big cuts in Social Security benefits for everyone currently under 55 years of age. On top of the cuts it also calls for privatizing Social Security.
Basically the exact plan President Bush tried in 2005. Next, it calls for the full privatization and phasing out of Medicare. It'll be replaced by a system of vouchers in which instead of getting Medicare you get a voucher to buy un-reformed private insurance.
Weirdly, with all that, the draft GOP budget doesn't get the federal budget into surplus until 2083, which seems like a pretty long time. But isn't this sort of a big deal? House Republicans are poised to run in 2010 on slashing or abolishing the two most popular federal government programs -- Social Security and Medicare.
Now, Minority Leader Boehner (R-OH) and Minority Whip Cantor (R-VA) have been sort of dancing around the Ryan draft. They're both saying they're putting forward a detailed budget plan and then simultaneously refusing to say Ryan's plan is endorsed by the conference. But Ryan's their budget writer. So this is a bit like Peter Orszag releasing a budget document and having Obama and Rahm saying he's just speaking for himself.
Swing at it. Hard. The GOP solution to balance the budget is to end Medicare and give the bankers control to run Social Security's trust fund. That's about as popular as a urinary tract infection. If you can't smash this one open, you guys deserve to lose in 2010.
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1 comment:
Well, the problem with swinging at beach balls is that they MIGHT not go where you want them too.
But then, this should be easy, so.
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