House GOP's budget shreds the safety net, gives big tax breaks (updated)
Last edited Tue Mar 20, 2012, 01:29 PM - Edit history (1)
by Joan McCarter
The CBO has analyzed Rep. Paul Ryan's budget proposal, finding what we already knew: it cuts Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP and Social Security, in some instances, quite deeply. Medicaid and SCHIP funding would go from 2 percent of GDP in 2011 to 1¼ percent in 2030 and 1 percent in 2050. He also stipulated to the CBO that they calculate the budget impact assuming that the Affordable Care Act is not implemented, and the federal government does not pay insurance subsidies for lower income Americans.
The Medicaid and SCHIP cuts are the deepest, with Ryan turning Medicaid into a state-run block grant, essentially taking the federal government out of the picture for providing health care to low income individuals, which includes seniors in care facilities, saving federal tax dollars by just leaving the states—and these individuals—to fend for themselves.
That, Ryan said in an op-ed he wrote today in the Wall Street Journal (quoted in this Washington Post story), "strengthens the safety net by returning power to the states, which are in the best position to tailor assistance to their specific populations." Yes, impoverishment of the states is returning power to them. His cuts to food stamps and Pell grants are no doubt also empowering, in that Ayn Rand kind of way.
Meanwhile, defense spending is not cut. Tax rates for the wealthy and for corporations are slashed:
Ryan pretends that the Affordable Care Act doesn't exist. He pretends that health care costs won't continue to rise, and that health care programs won't need to increase spending to keep up with those costs. He likewise pretends that college costs won't rise, and thus cuts Pell grants. He pretends that people in America aren't hungry, and thus cuts food stamps. He pretends that tax cuts for the wealthy will actually do what they've never done, and will miraculously spur job growth and an expansion of the economy.
- more -
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/20/1076086/-House-GOP-s-budget-shreds-the-safety-net-gives-big-tax-nbsp-breaks-
Updated to add:
By Igor Volsky
After his last attempt at a budget went down in flames last year, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) unveiled the House GOP’s new budget this morning, painting it as a sensible plan to reform the nation’s tax code and reduce the debt while maintaining entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Yet again, however, Ryan and the GOP have the social safety net and Medicare in their sights, and yet again, they’re attempting to pass the cost of massive tax breaks for corporations and the rich off to middle and lower-income Americans.
Here are the five worst things about Ryan’s budget:
1. SENIORS WOULD PAY MORE FOR HEALTH CARE...
2. ELDERLY AND DISABLED WOULD LOSE MEDICAID COVERAGE...
3. THIRTY MILLION AMERICANS WOULD LOSE HEALTH COVERAGE ...
4. CORPORATIONS AND THE RICH WOULD GET A $3 TRILLION TAX CUT ...
5. DEFENSE BUDGET WOULD GET A BOOST, WHILE THE SAFETY NET IS CUT ...
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/03/20/448212/the-5-worst-things-about-the-house-gops-budget/
= new reply since forum marked as read
the national debt:
1. have the government confiscate the first $50,000 of all families.
2. issue gold and platinum cards to all elected politicians; if a citizen is shown a gold card, he/she must grant 3 wishes; a platinum holder could request 8 favors/wishes.
3. food shopping; ages 1-25 could shop on Mondays, ages 26 thru 75 could shop on Tuesday's; people over the age of 75 would be given 2 varities of seeds and a bag of dirt.
4. people owning less than 3 working guns would be fined $1,000.
5. Health care: people would be treated by other people who have had, or know of someone who has had a similar disease/injury.
6. Tear down house's that don't have at least 9 people living in them. (1 domestic servant counts as 7 people).
7. If you live less than 10 miles from work, you may not own a motorized vehicle unless your driveway is more than 1/2 mile of pavement or brick.
8. People over 13 without jobs, woud be "given" jobs. But no one between the ages of 13 and 15 would be required to work more than 38 hours per week.
9. In order to keep the crime rate down, there will be no more "just walking around" after sunset.
10. If you have a pet, the pet must be consumed by age 6. After proof of consumption, you will be issued another "pet".
If you do not consume your pet, you will be fined $1,000. The only exception would be for pets that you originally paid more than $6,000 for.
As you can plainly see, it's nearly nap time. I depend on you to add to this list of not very well thought out plans for reducing the deficit and taking care of the rich .
