Tag Archives: Paul Ryan

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Moderate George Will loves Paul Ryan’s plan for economic recovery

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Rep. Paul Ryan

Editorial from the Press Telegram. (H/T ECM)

Excerpt:

Ryan would eliminate taxes on interest, capital gains, dividends and death.The corporate income tax, the world’s second highest, would be replaced by an 8.5 percent business consumption tax. Because this would be about half the average tax burden that other nations place on corporations, U.S. companies would instantly become more competitive – and more able and eager to hire.

Medicare and Social Security would be preserved for those currently receiving benefits, or becoming eligible in the next 10 years (those 55 and older today). Both programs would be made permanently solvent.

Universal access to affordable health care would be guaranteed by refundable tax credits ($2,300 for individuals, $5,700 for families) for purchasing portable coverage in any state. As persons under 55 became Medicare eligible, they would receive payments averaging $11,000 a year, indexed to inflation and pegged to income, with low-income people receiving more support.

Ryan’s plan would fund medical savings accounts from which low-income people would pay minor out-of-pocket medical expenses. All Americans, regardless of income, would be allowed to establish MSAs – tax-preferred accounts for paying such expenses.

Ryan’s plan would allow workers under 55 the choice of investing more than one-third of their current Social Security taxes in personal retirement accounts similar to the Thrift Savings Plan long available to, and immensely popular with, federal employees. This investment would be inheritable property, guaranteeing that individuals will never lose the ability to dispose every dollar they put into these accounts.

Ryan would raise the retirement age. If, when Congress created Social Security in 1935, it had indexed the retirement age (then 65) to life expectancy, today the age would be in the mid-70s. The system was never intended to do what it is doing – subsidizing retirements that extend from one-third to one-half of retirees’ adult lives.

My last post on George Will is here: Moderate George Will lauds the virtues of Michele Bachmann. He’s actually quite moderate, not at all a conservative, so this is very interesting.

ECM also send me this article from the American Spectator.

Excerpt:

Ever since his back and forth with President Obama during last week’s question time at the Republican retreat, Rep. Paul Ryan’s “Roadmap for America’s Future” has been gaining attention as a plan that the Congressional Budget Office has projected would actually solve our nation’s long-term entitlement crisis.

[…]“The lower budget deficits under your proposal would result in much less federal debt than under the alternative fiscal scenario and thereby a much more favorable macroeconomic outlook,” CBO writes in page 14 of its analysis of the Ryan plan.

CBO projects “real gross national product per person would be about 70 percent higher in 2058 under the proposal.” But after 2058, the CBO’s model completely breaks down when trying to project current trends, “because deficits become so large and unsustainable that the model cannot calculate their effects.” By contrast, the model shows the Ryan plan continuing to achieve economic growth in the decades that follow. This is demonstrated by the CBO chart below.

So the CBO is backing up Ryan’s calculations.

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Paul Ryan confronts Tim Geithner on Obama’s 1.56 trillion budget deficit

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Rep. Paul Ryan

Seriously. I’m never seen such reckless directness from a politician since Michele Bachmann’s passionate speeches.

CANDOR. AUTHENTICITY. PASSION. KNOWLEDGE.

Contrast Obama’s flowery hopenchange speeches with this straight talk:

Next time, let’s elect someone with substance. Paul Ryan.

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Paul Ryan declares war on Obama’s record 1.56 trillion dollar budget deficit

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Rep. Paul Ryan

Conservative Republican Paul Ryan’s response to Obama’s new 2010 budget.

Excerpt:

“For the duration of the Administration’s 10-year budget, the deficit never falls below $700 billion, and never falls below 3.6 percent of GDP – a level the Administration’s own budget director has called ‘unsustainable.’ Debt held by the public doubles over 5 years, triples over 10,   and exceeds 60 percent of GDP as a share of the economy this year – surpassing last year’s 50-year high. Debt continues to rise to consume 77.2 percent of our economy by the end of the budget window. Even the countries of the European Union, hardly exemplars of fiscal rectitude, are required to keep their debt levels below 60 percent of GDP.

“The Administration will attempt to focus attention on a handful of proposals supposedly aimed at tempering the Federal Government’s explosive growth. But these have far more to do with calming Americans’ concerns than with doing anything to address them. His pay-as-you-go proposal has been waived or circumvented and only locks in deficits at their current high levels. His non-binding commission simply punts on the critical budget decisions that Members of Congress got elected to make. Finally, his so-called ‘freeze’ on some discretionary spending follows an 84-percent increase – and has no clear means of enforcement.

These charts accompany Paul Ryan’s statement. (H/T Michelle Malkin)

First, government spending:

Second, debt held by public as % of GDP:

The problems started when the Democrats got control of Congress in late 2006. (The House controls spending) Talking about “spending freezes” on tiny amounts of the budget now has no effect because we are losing a trillion dollars-and-a-half dollars a year now. It’s just politics meant to deceive the people who still believe Obama’s honeyed words.

More details about Obama’s budget are here on the Republican House Budget Committee web site.

What is Paul Ryan’s alternative?

Neil Simpson posted a link to an overview of Paul Ryan’s plan.

Excerpt:

Health Care
•    Provides a refundable tax credit — $2,300 for individuals and $5,700 for families — to purchase coverage in any state, and keep it with them if they move or change jobs.
•    Allows Medicaid recipients to take part in the same variety of options by using the tax credit to purchase high-quality care.

Medicare
•    Establishes and fully funds Medical Savings Accounts for low-income beneficiaries to cover out-of-pocket costs, while continuing to allow all beneficiaries, regardless of income, to set up tax-free MSAs.

Social Security
•    Offers workers under 55 the option of investing over one third of their current Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts, similar to the Thrift Savings Plan available to federal employees.

Tax Reform
•    Provides taxpayers a choice of how to pay their income taxes – through existing law, or through a highly simplified income tax system that fits on a postcard with just two rates and virtually no special tax deductions, credits or exclusions (except the health care tax credit).
•    Promotes saving by eliminating taxes on interest, capital gains and dividends and eliminates the death tax.

Read the rest, and see if these ideas that promote saving and investing, instead of borrowing and spending, make more sense to you than Obama’s spending millions of taxpayer dollars on turtle tunnels.