With the plan all but dead in the water, Rep. Paul Ryan takes to the Chicago Tribune this morning in order to "set the record straight" on his plan, and by that I mean "project the fear and economic chaos that this plan will cause onto the Kenyan other."
The House-passed budget — "The Path to Prosperity" — offers an alternative vision. It is rooted in the recognition that spending discipline and economic growth are the keys to balancing the federal budget.
In a recent speech he gave in response to the House budget, President Barack Obama outlined his approach to addressing our fiscal imbalance. It begins with trillions of dollars in higher taxes and relies on a plan to control costs in Medicare: A board of 15 unelected bureaucrats would be given more power to deeply ration Medicare spending in ways that would disrupt the lives of those in retirement, leading to waiting lists and denied care for today's seniors.
By contrast, the House-passed budget gets health care spending under control by empowering Americans to fight back against skyrocketing costs. Our budget makes no changes for those in or near retirement, and offers future generations a strengthened Medicare program they can count on, with guaranteed coverage options, less help for the wealthy, and more help for the poor and the sick.
There is widespread, bipartisan agreement that the open-ended, fee-for-service structure of Medicare is a key driver of health-care cost inflation. Medicare is not the train being pulled along by the engine of rising costs. Medicare is the engine — and the rest of us are getting taken for a ride.
The disagreement isn't really about the problem — it's about the solution to controlling costs. Our budget would achieve this by letting seniors act as value-conscious consumers in a transparent and competitive market. Our plan is to give seniors the power to deny business to inefficient health care providers. The Obama plan is to give government the power to deny health care to seniors.
The House-passed budget also rejects the president's call for permanently higher taxes. Instead, it calls for scaling back or eliminating loopholes and carve-outs in the tax code that are distorting economic incentives. It does this, not to raise taxes, but to create space for lower rates to provide incentives for businesses to create jobs in America.
By contrast, the president says he wants to eliminate deductions, but he also wants to raise rates, including raising the top rate to 44.8 percent. That would amount to a $1.5 trillion tax hike on families and job creators.
Gotta hand it to Ryan, he's hit all the GOP high notes on scaremongering and lies that worked in 2010: "Death panels", the "trillion dollar plus tax hike on the middle class", "strengthening Medicare", "giving seniors the power", "Obama will deny health care to seniors"...all of them outright lies.
In fact, the plan that denies coverage to seniors is the Ryan plan itself. It replaces Medicare with a voucher program that does NOT guarantee coverage and shifts the burden of paying for care to seniors, the CBO saying the plan would cost seniors $6,000 more per year. If you live to 90, it's going to cost you an extra $150,000 over 25 years. Where's a senior supposed to get that kind of money from, working at Wal-Mart as a greeter?
The death panels? Well, that will be your insurance company...if you can convince one to cover a 70 year old living on fixed income. The tax hike? Well, the Ryan plan will cut taxes on the wealthy...and make seniors foot the bill. The Obama plan would yes, let the tax cuts on the wealthy expire, but not the middle class cuts. And denying health care to seniors? That's the Ryan plan, not the Obama plan.
But you don't have to take my word for it. Democrats, Republicans, conservatives, liberals, and even Ron Paul have come out against the Ryan Unicorn Plan. And remember, re-launch or not, it's still the same old Ryan Unicorn Plan, no matter what Ryan says and does to lie about it and scare you with. America didn't believe it then, and they won't believe it now. It's proof that Ryan and the rest of the GOP think you're stupid.
It's going to fail spectacularly. Watch.
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