The Ryan Plan

[MTAtech]

Republicans in the House are shooting the moon with the Ryan Plan, that they say addresses deficits and long-term debt and does so through savage cuts in Medicare and Medicaid, while granting additional tax-cuts to the top bracket -- dropping them from 35% to 25%.

I say for all it cuts spending it does not reduce the deficit.

Republicans aren't even allowed to criticize the plan, else they get their peenie slapped, as Newt Gingrich found out when he called it "right-wing social engineering."

Class, discuss...

[Chuckiechan]

Until the Senate produces a budget alternative to the House's, there is a stalemate. And until that stalemate is broken, there is no point in discussing Ryan.

For the Senate to produce a budget, they will have put down on paper what they are afraid to say out loud.

We are on a collision course with reality.

Would you want to vote for increased taxes and spending in an election year with 20% real unemployment and stagflation gripping the country?

I am waiting to see the Senate budget.

[Theophylact]

Rep. Rob Woodall, a Georgia Republican, made a vigorous ideological defense of ending Medicare as it currently exists, telling seniors at a local town hall that they ought not look to the government to provide health care for the elderly just because their private employer doesn't offer health benefits for retirees.

A Woodall constituent raised a practical obstacle to obtaining coverage in the private market within the confines of an employer-based health insurance system: What happens when you retire?

"The private corporation that I retired from does not give medical benefits to retirees," the woman told the congressman in video captured a local Patch reporter in Dacula, Ga.

"Hear yourself, ma'am. Hear yourself," Woodall told the woman. "You want the government to take care of you, because your employer decided not to take care of you. My question is, 'When do I decide I'm going to take care of me?'"

...

Another woman told the congressman that Medicare provides peace of mind to her children, who would be on the hook for her care otherwise, much as they were before the social safety net was stitched together.

"I'm fine with my Medicare, and my children and my grand children -- my children especially -- would have a lot of heartburn if they know that I'm not on Medicare, because that voucher is not going to go very far,” said the woman.

...

Woodall suggested that the woman concerned about vouchers might find the type of health care system she and her children approve of in Canada or another industrialized nation.

"If you want a socialized health care program, there are lots of places to find that," he said. "But, for your children's sake, I beg you: There aren't many places to find the freedom to succeed by the sweat of your brow like we have here.”

So that's it. Pay for it yourself out of the "sweat of your brow" or move to a civilized country. That's the Ryan Plan, and people ought to understand it. If they do, the Republicans are dead.

[MTAtech]

Until the Senate produces a budget alternative to the House's, there is a stalemate. And until that stalemate is broken, there is no point in discussing Ryan.

There is an alternative to the budget proposal that get's no attention from 'the liberal media.' It's from the Congressional Progressive Caucus. And unlike the Ryan plan, it actually makes sense.

Another woman told the congressman that Medicare provides peace of mind to her children...

According to some fascinating new economic research, Is Employer-Based Health Insurance A Barrier To Entrepreneurship?, there's an unexpectedly large numbers of Americans becoming entrepreneurs within months of qualifying for Medicare (over and above those you would expect to become entrepreneurs because they were fired, forcibly retired, etc.) The reason: They now have the security of healthcare, so they can take the risk of starting private companies. It's just one of the MANY, MANY ways in which a vigorous public and private sector support each other to create a successful economy that can't occur when there's only one or the other.