“We think America is on the wrong track,” said Chairman of the House Budget Committee Paul Ryan (R-WI) as his budget plan passed the House on a party-line vote. “We think the president is bringing us to a debt crisis and a welfare state in decline,” he continued.
So what’s his prescription?
It turns out the GOP’s lead budget person is pushing for a debt crisis and a welfare state. Except the debt crisis would be caused by continuing to give massive tax cuts to the 1 percent and the welfare program would be for Big Oil. And one other thing: it would end Medicare as we know it.
The Ryan budget would reduce taxes roughly $400,000 a year on those earning more than $1 million annually. 62 percent of the funding for this tax cut comes from low income programs.
The Ryan budget would keep the $24 billion in subsidies to Big Oil that the Obama Administration tried to end.
The Ryan budget would transform Medicare from a system that guarantees coverage to a voucher system and raise the age of eligibility, leaving millions of seniors without affordable coverage.
The Republicans have had quite a few chances to lay out a fresh vision for America, but instead keep offering up the same misguided priorities that make the rich even richer and leave the rest of us out to dry. If Paul Ryan thinks that forcing Americans to give up our Medicare benefits while continuing taxpayer handouts to Big Oil is the “right track” for America, then we might not want to board that train.