Congressman Paul Ryan has a proposed budget plan that could avoid the looming disaster we face with Obama’s spending and taxing plans. I’ll try to analyze it briefly but we will see much more about it, especially if Republicans take Congress this fall.
Here is one analysis in, of all places, the Washington Post.
His budget road map offers many proposals, but one big vision. Over time, Ryan concentrates government spending on the poor through means-tested programs, patching holes in the safety net while making entitlements more sustainable. He saves money by providing the middle class with defined-contribution benefits — private retirement accounts and health vouchers — that are more portable but less generous in the long run. And he expects a growing economy, liberated from debt and inflation, to provide more real gains for middle-class citizens than they lose from lower government benefits.
Ryan has been proposing this plan for several years but only now is it getting serious attention.
Spending. Our budget gives priority to national defense and veterans’ health care. We freeze all other discretionary spending for five years, allowing it to grow modestly after that. We also place all spending under a statutory spending cap backed up by tough budget enforcement.
A spending freeze has been a good option for years. It was a proposal of McCain’s in the campaign. Instead, the Obama administration has increased federal employees by 153,000 in one year. The deficits, of course, are notorious.
– Energy. Our budget lays a firm foundation to position the U.S. to meet three important strategic energy goals: reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil, deploying more clean and renewable energy sources free of greenhouse gas, and supporting economic growth. We do these things by rejecting the president’s cap-and-trade scheme, by opening exploration on our nation’s oil and gas fields, and by investing the proceeds in a new clean energy trust fund, infrastructure and further deficit reduction.
I think “clean energy” is a boondoggle but this proposal was made last spring before the “Climategate” scandal punctured the AGW balloon.
– Entitlements. Our budget also takes steps toward fulfilling the mission of health and retirement security, in part by making these programs fiscally sustainable. The budget moves toward making quality health care affordable and accessible to all Americans by strengthening the relationship between patients and their doctors, not the dictates of government bureaucrats. We preserve the existing Medicare program for all those 55 or older; and then, to make the program sustainable and dependable, those 54 and younger will enter a Medicare program reformed to work like the health plan members of Congress and federal employees now enjoy. Starting in 2021, seniors would receive a premium support payment equal to 100% of the Medicare benefit on average. This would be income related, so low-income seniors receive extra support, and high-income seniors receive support relative to their incomes — along the same lines as the president’s Medicare Part D proposal.
I have my own ideas on health care reform. The Medicare reforms he proposed are an extension of the private accounts that Bush proposed in 2005. Social Security is in somewhat better shape than Medicare but it is not sustainable long term and fixing it is easier now than in 2017 when expenditures first begin to exceed revenue. There are comments that the “trust fund” will still not be exhausted until 2037 but that trust fund consists of Treasury IOUs. On Social Security, itself, he proposes only modest changes.
In one of the most valued government programs — Social Security — our budget begins to develop a bipartisan solution to the program’s pending bankruptcy by incorporating some of the reforms advocated by the president’s budget director. Specifically, we provide for a trigger that would make small adjustments in the benefits for higher-income beneficiaries if the Social Security Administration determines the Social Security Trust Fund cannot meet its obligations. This is a modest but serious proposal which would not affect those in or near retirement, but is aimed at helping develop a consensus, across party lines, toward saving this important retirement program. We also assure that benefits for lower-income recipients are large enough to keep them out of poverty.
I think he is avoiding the serious issues here in the interest of avoiding the worst demagogues.
The key to any success is getting the annual increases to stop. We will hear a lot more about Ryan’s plans although the loudest voices will be misrepresenting it and demogoguing the topic.
… backed up by tough budget enforcement
If we can get that in the current Washington climate.
Next to Obama’s foolishness, most anything looks good.
Italics – halt!