This is from an article in Truth Dig published 12/5/2015 from Robert Reich. Paul Ryan again ignores the will of the people with this proposal. I added my personal comments on his proposals which appear in the parentheses .
12/5/2015 Truth Dig
Yesterday, the new Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, summed up his House Republican agenda – vowing to pursue legislation that would frame a stark choice for voters in 2016.
“Our No. 1 goal for the next year is to put together a complete alternative to the left’s agenda,” he said.
Despite the speech’s sweeping oratory and careful stagecraft, Ryan clings to seven dumb ideas that are also cropping up among Republican presidential candidates.
Here they are, and here’s why they’re dumb:
1. Reduce the top income-tax rate to 25% from the current 39%. A terrible idea. It’s a huge windfall to the rich at a time when the rich already take home a larger share of total income that at any time since the 1920s. (Notice no tax cuts or incentives for the rest of us.)
2. Cut corporate taxes to 25% from the current 35%. Another bad idea. A giant sop to corporations, the largest of which are already socking away $2.1 trillion in foreign tax shelters. (Why? They already pay an effective tax rate of less than 10% due to all the loopholes and 25% pay no taxes at all while receiving a rebate from the Government)
3. Slash spending on domestic programs like food stamps and education for poor districts. What?! Already 22% of the nation’s children are in poverty; these cuts would only make things worse. (Notice there’s never a move to cut anything to do with defense regardless of how much the Pentagon blows on waste like $43 million for a $500K gas station and $150 million to house defense workers when housing on bases would save millions?)
4. Turn Medicaid and other federal programs for the poor into block grants for the states, and let the states decide how to allocate them. In other words, give Republican state legislatures and governors slush funds to do with as they wish. A handout to States that oppose Medicaid who would most likely use it to cut taxes on the rich in their states and screw the poor out of healthcare.)
5. Turn Medicare into vouchers that don’t keep up with increases in healthcare costs. In effect cutting Medicare for the elderly. Another awful idea. (I thought the people had already spoken on this one. No way do we want the damned vouchers in lieu of our Medicare.)
6. Deal with rising Social Security costs by raising the retirement age for Social Security. Bad! This would make Social Security even more regressive, since the poor don’t live nearly as long as the rich. (Again, the majority of people have spoken on this issue. Lower the age requirement, not raise it and increase the benefit and adjust our cola to more accurately reflect senior expenses.)
7. Finally, let the minimum wage continue to decline as inflation eats it away. Wrong again. Low wage workers need a higher minimum wage.
(And besides, SS benefits are calculated on what’s called the “substantial earnings test” to determine what your full benefit would be. It is adjusted for inflation while our wages are not, at least not for the past 30 years. Currently that is $25,000 for 2015, so if you earned less than that, it counts as a zero earnings year as far as SS benefit is concerned. Need $12.02 per hour to qualify so the $10.10 won’t work nor would $12.00 per hour, unless you worked some extra hours.)
These 7 ideas will harm most Americans. Ryan is wrong.
