GOP Timebomb: How Republican Star Paul Ryan's Radical "Roadmap" Would Dynamite Social Security and M

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/149651/gop_timebomb%3A_how_republican_star_paul_ryan%27s_radical_%22roadmap%22_would_dynamite_social_security_and_medicare

GOP Timebomb: How Republican Star Paul Ryan's Radical "Roadmap" Would Dynamite Social Security and Medicare

Republicans are elevating Rep. Paul Ryan, whose disastrous conservative economic "roadmap" will gut the social safety net and put money in the hands of the rich.

Republicans announced last Friday that Rep. Paul Ryan (WI), chairman of the House Budget Committee, will deliver the GOP's response to President Obama's State of the Union address tomorrow. According to reports, GOP leaders chose Ryan because he is supposedly a "champion of slashing government spending." The seven-term Wisconsin congressman gives Republicans a "chance to emphasize their core message: government spending must come down to reduce the nation's annual deficit and long-term debt." House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said Ryan -- who has been given "stunning and unprecedented" power to shape the budget -- is "uniquely qualified to address the state of our economy and the fiscal challenges that face our country." Ryan is known as the GOP's numbers guy in the House, and he laid out last year what he calls a "Roadmap" to fiscal health. But as the Washington Post's Ezra Klein notes, "The more they elevate Ryan, the more they elevate Ryan's Roadmap. And that document is a timebomb for them."

PRIVATIZING ENTITLEMENTS: Ryan's Roadmap puts Americans on the path of privatizing entitlement programs, such as Social Security. The plan boasts about "the creation of personal investment accounts for future retirees" that are "the property of the individual." (Emphasis in the original document). "Individuals will be able to join the investor class for the first time," the Roadmap says.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) notes that "the Ryan plan proposes large cuts in Social Security benefits -- roughly 16 percent for the average new retiree in 2050 and 28 percent in 2080 from price indexing alone." It "initially diverts most of these savings to help fund private accounts rather than to restore Social Security solvency." CBPP also notes that the Roadmap "would eliminate traditional Medicare, most of Medicaid, and all of the Children's Health Insurance Program" by creating a private voucher system that won't keep up with the cost of health care.

By 2080, under Ryan's plan, the Medicare program would be reduced by nearly 80 percent below its projected size under current policies. CBPP summed up Ryan's plan: The Roadmap's cuts "would be so severe that CBO estimates they would shrink total federal expenditures (other than on interest payments) from roughly 19 percent of GDP in recent years to just 13.8 percent of GDP by 2080. Federal spending has not equaled such a low level of GDP since 1950, when Medicare and Medicaid did not yet exist, Social Security failed to cover many workers, and close to half of the elderly people in the United States lived below the poverty line."

MORE at the link --

[Myrina]

1. I LOVED Bernie Sanders' response ...

... I was sleepy so can't recall which network but he basically said he WANTS it to come to the floor and he WANTS a vote on it so he can HOLD THE GOP TO IT come election time.

Try 'splainin that piece of shit/fuck the average guy legislation to your consitutents, Pauly.

[opihimoimoi]

2. Ryans simplistic answers will not work for the Nation. He is guessing ...Leaders weigh out things

more carefully than him....

Weak background....weak arguement for his PLAN, and weak outlook for bright results...

again, the GROPErs miss the boat.....

[kirby]

3. However...

Because we bailed out the banks and then did not hold anyone accountable, it is much harder for most people to see
how dangerous it would be for the private sector to control all the SS money in private accounts.