Last Monday, The Washington Post ran glowing reports on Paul Ryan Here. They tell us the CBO estimated that his plan would cut the deficit in half by 2020. What they don't say is that Ryan submitted his plan with only Budget cuts and did not include tax cuts. Cutting taxes AND spending would leave the deficit right where it is, $1.4 trillion in 2020.
This is rather like Little Bush campaigning on the need to reform Social Security using unadjusted 1960, 1972, 1980 and 1990 dollars as though they were equal. It is just another way of lying.
Ryan wants Medicare to issue vouchers for people under 55, which was Newt Gingrich's idea back in 1990. The problem with this is that vouchers would only subsidize a portion of private insurance and only a small percentage of the population could benefit.
He also wants to raise the age of eligibility to 69.
He wants to raise retirement age to 70 years and reduce benefits for those now 54 and younger.
Paul Ryan wants to eliminate "entitlements" like Social Security. Yet Social Security is not an entitlement, it is a form of insurance which workers and employers pay for. He would establish investment accounts that workers would pay into to build their retirement fund. That would benefit stock brokers, but what happens when the market drops (as it did 2 years ago) and you are ready to draw on that fund?
He wants to eliminate taxes on interest, capital gains, dividends, and estates.
He does not want to reduce the defense budget, he wants to increase it. Even the Cato Institute and Ron Paul think we need to slash the Pentagon's Budget and make them accountable for it.
This is the best the Republicans can offer?
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