Calling themselves the Young Guns, three members of America's House of Representatives are about to publish a template for new era of Republican domination in Congress.
With the economy failing to live up to President Barack Obama's hopes for a strong recovery - unemployment remains just below ten percent - Republicans are poised for major gains on Nov 2, when all of the House and a third of Senate seats is contested in midterm elections.
The president has scrambled to stave off defeat over the economy and will this week launch measures designed to boost small businesses.
He will ask Congress to increase and extend a tax credit for research and development, as a way of boosting job creation, an administration official said yesterday. He is also likely to propose to use tax cuts for the rich passed by Mr Bush which are about to expire for further tax breaks for business.
Many polls and pundits say the Republicans will gain the 39 seats needed to win back control of the House of Representatives but just fall short of winning back the Senate.
But doubts linger that the party can take advantage of the favourable winds as it struggles to persuade voters that it has changed significantly since it lost power in 2006.
A recent NBC poll found only 24 per cent of voters saw the party in a positive light.
The Young Guns book recognises "high profile ethics lapses" and "an inability to rein in spending or even slow the growth of government" led to a breakdown in trust in the party.
During the previous Republican rule, Tom DeLay, the former majority leader in the House, was prosecuted for money laundering and violating campaign finance laws, though he was never convicted. Several other members of Congress were embroiled in scandals involving favours for lobbyists.
"The fact is, we had our chance, and we blew it," wrote co-author Eric Cantor, the party's chief whip.
Critics have pointed out that Mr Cantor, 47, from Virginia, was a member of the party's leadership during the era he is now criticising.
The Young Guns programme run by Mr Cantor and his colleagues and co-authors Kevin McCarthy and Paul Ryan is designed to find new, reliable conservative candidates.
Leaked excerpts indicate that it poses a challenge to the party's most senior leaders.
My take:
Bush, a phony conservative, forced real conservatives to take this step by elbowing his way back to the national stage with a book that will be published shortly after the November election. Stand by for pre-election excerpts. The only plausible explanation for this timing is that Bush and his publisher want to sell books and he wants to resume a role in national politics.
If he were to succeed, the Republicans could kiss any "new era" story line goodby. During his eight years in office, Bush expanded government and increased government spending horrifically, while also plunging the United States into seemingly endless war in the Middle East. Economist Joseph Stiglitz has just calculated that the Iraq war alone - a war of choice - has cost the U.S. more than $3 trillion, several times the amount of government estimates.
As he attempts to put the best face on his decisions with a book about his decision-making, that book inevitably will muddle the message planted so vigorously by conservative voters and the Tea Party: it's time for the fake conservatives to step aside and allow real conservatives to govern. Judging by polls, that is what a majority of voters want, as well.
The renewed presence of George Bush on the national stage can not help that endeavor. He undoubtedly is aware of this, and his timing may have an ulterior motive - to undercut the prevailing conservative message of the Tea Party and many voters and prevent the Republican Party from making a hard right turn.
A hard right turn might deprive his brother, Jeb, and perhaps a nephew or two, of a chance at the White House.
Showing posts with label Rep. Paul Ryan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rep. Paul Ryan. Show all posts
Monday, September 6, 2010
Friday, August 13, 2010
Rep. Paul Ryan explains his roadmap to preserving medicare
The annual analysis of Medicare's financial health released by the program's trustees on Aug. 5 led some Democrats to claim that Medicare's imminent bankruptcy has been delayed, thanks to the creation of their health entitlement program. Only in Washington could the government raid one entitlement program to finance a brand-new one and still claim that deficits have been reduced and entitlements have been reformed.
The trustees' report compares the revenue that supports Medicare's trust funds with the program's planned expenditures. Last year's report revealed a $38 trillion shortfall over the next 75 years. This year the shortfall appears to have decreased, but only after the Democrats' health bill cut $529 billion from Medicare. This apparent improvement was the basis for Democratic celebration -- even though the program remains tens of trillions of dollars in the hole.
With the same legislation that cut more than half a trillion dollars in Medicare spending, the Democrats created a nearly $1 trillion health-care entitlement. The Obama administration's own chief actuary has explained that in addition to the dubious assumptions on provider cuts and other claims of savings, the health-care law's Medicare cuts cannot be used to both reduce Medicare's unfunded obligations and pay for a new entitlement. And the Congressional Budget Office said in March that the health-care overhaul's Medicare savings "would be used to pay for other spending and therefore would not enhance the ability of the government to pay for future Medicare benefits."
Put simply, Medicare is on course to collapse. Medicare and interest on the national debt alone will soon overwhelm the federal budget, crowding out all other national priorities. The CBO estimates that Medicare will consume 12 percent of gross domestic product by 2080 (up from 3.6 percent of GDP today), bringing total health entitlement spending to 17 percent of GDP. Exacerbating our unsustainable trajectory, health spending explodes under the Democrats' health plan -- raiding Medicare, expanding Medicaid and creating two entitlements without any clue of how to finance the ones we have now. The economy simply cannot handle such crushing levels of taxation and the borrowing required to finance this spending; the CBO warned last month of a devastating debt crisis within two decades.
We do not have a choice as to whether Medicare will change from its current structure. It is being driven to insolvency. An honest debate requires a serious discussion of how Medicare will avert its collapse and be made sustainable. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the Democrats' political machine has attacked my contribution to this debate, making the false claim that the only solution put forward to save Medicare would "end Medicare as we know it."
The CBO has said that my reform plan, "A Roadmap for America's Future," would put Medicare on a sustainable path. The plan protects and preserves Medicare for those enrolled now and for those who will become eligible in the next 10 years, while reforming the program to ensure it will be there for younger generations. Future seniors would have access to the same coverage I enjoy as a congressman.
Far from the claims of "radicalism," this proposal is based on a key reform from the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare, chaired by then-Sen. John Breaux (D-La.). That commission in 1999 recommended "modeling a system on the one Members of Congress use to obtain health care coverage for themselves and their families."
Future Medicare beneficiaries would receive a payment to apply to a list of Medicare-certified coverage options. The Medicare payment would grow every year, with additional support for those who have low incomes and higher health costs, and less government support for high-income beneficiaries. The most vulnerable seniors would also receive supplemental Medicaid coverage and continue to be eligible for Medicaid's long-term care benefit.
If we act now, we can avoid disruptions for current seniors while advancing patient-centered reforms so Medicare will be strengthened for future beneficiaries. The alternative is the European-style death spiral of the welfare state: kick the can down the road as our debt explodes. Under an ever-expansive, all-consuming central government, costs will be contained with Washington's heavy hand imposing price controls, slashing benefits and arbitrarily rationing seniors' care.
The trustees' report compares the revenue that supports Medicare's trust funds with the program's planned expenditures. Last year's report revealed a $38 trillion shortfall over the next 75 years. This year the shortfall appears to have decreased, but only after the Democrats' health bill cut $529 billion from Medicare. This apparent improvement was the basis for Democratic celebration -- even though the program remains tens of trillions of dollars in the hole.
With the same legislation that cut more than half a trillion dollars in Medicare spending, the Democrats created a nearly $1 trillion health-care entitlement. The Obama administration's own chief actuary has explained that in addition to the dubious assumptions on provider cuts and other claims of savings, the health-care law's Medicare cuts cannot be used to both reduce Medicare's unfunded obligations and pay for a new entitlement. And the Congressional Budget Office said in March that the health-care overhaul's Medicare savings "would be used to pay for other spending and therefore would not enhance the ability of the government to pay for future Medicare benefits."
Put simply, Medicare is on course to collapse. Medicare and interest on the national debt alone will soon overwhelm the federal budget, crowding out all other national priorities. The CBO estimates that Medicare will consume 12 percent of gross domestic product by 2080 (up from 3.6 percent of GDP today), bringing total health entitlement spending to 17 percent of GDP. Exacerbating our unsustainable trajectory, health spending explodes under the Democrats' health plan -- raiding Medicare, expanding Medicaid and creating two entitlements without any clue of how to finance the ones we have now. The economy simply cannot handle such crushing levels of taxation and the borrowing required to finance this spending; the CBO warned last month of a devastating debt crisis within two decades.
We do not have a choice as to whether Medicare will change from its current structure. It is being driven to insolvency. An honest debate requires a serious discussion of how Medicare will avert its collapse and be made sustainable. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the Democrats' political machine has attacked my contribution to this debate, making the false claim that the only solution put forward to save Medicare would "end Medicare as we know it."
The CBO has said that my reform plan, "A Roadmap for America's Future," would put Medicare on a sustainable path. The plan protects and preserves Medicare for those enrolled now and for those who will become eligible in the next 10 years, while reforming the program to ensure it will be there for younger generations. Future seniors would have access to the same coverage I enjoy as a congressman.
Far from the claims of "radicalism," this proposal is based on a key reform from the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare, chaired by then-Sen. John Breaux (D-La.). That commission in 1999 recommended "modeling a system on the one Members of Congress use to obtain health care coverage for themselves and their families."
Future Medicare beneficiaries would receive a payment to apply to a list of Medicare-certified coverage options. The Medicare payment would grow every year, with additional support for those who have low incomes and higher health costs, and less government support for high-income beneficiaries. The most vulnerable seniors would also receive supplemental Medicaid coverage and continue to be eligible for Medicaid's long-term care benefit.
If we act now, we can avoid disruptions for current seniors while advancing patient-centered reforms so Medicare will be strengthened for future beneficiaries. The alternative is the European-style death spiral of the welfare state: kick the can down the road as our debt explodes. Under an ever-expansive, all-consuming central government, costs will be contained with Washington's heavy hand imposing price controls, slashing benefits and arbitrarily rationing seniors' care.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Rep. Paul Ryan has a road map to U. S. solvency; who knew?
For Republicans, the road map authored by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin is the most important proposal in domestic policy since Ronald Reagan embraced supply-side economics in the 1980 presidential campaign. It's not only the freshest, boldest, and most comprehensive Republican thinking, it's also the most relevant. If Republicans adopt the road map as their basic ideological blueprint, it offers them the prospect of a landslide in the midterm election this year, followed by victory in the presidential election in 2012.
(snip)
For now, the road map has a relatively small but growing cheering section. A dozen House members have endorsed it. Sen. Jim DeMint praised it in his book "Saving Freedom." Jeb Bush likes it. On CNN last week, economic historian Niall Ferguson called Ryan "a serious thinker on the Republican right who's prepared to grapple with these issues of fiscal sustainability and come up with a plan."
The plan would give everyone a refundable tax credit to buy health insurance, allow individual investment accounts to be carved out of Social Security, reduce the six income tax rates to two (10 and 25 percent), and replace the corporate tax (35 percent) with a business consumption tax (8.5 percent). And that's not the half of it.
As ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, Ryan was able to get the Congressional Budget Office to run the numbers in his plan. CBO concluded the plan would "make the Social Security and Medicare programs permanently solvent [and] lift the growing debt burden on future generations, and hold federal taxes to no higher than 19 percent of GDP." Pretty impressive results, I'd say.
The road map does one more thing. It would give Republicans an agenda if they gain control of the House or Senate in the midterm election -- or a mandate if they win both. "What's the point of winning an election if you don't have a mandate?" Ryan asks.
He doesn't expect a mandate in 2010. "I need to make sure these ideas survive this election," he says, and set the stage for "the most ideological, sea-changing election in our lifetime" in 2012. Merely survive in 2010? The road map can do better than that. How about thrive?
(snip)
For now, the road map has a relatively small but growing cheering section. A dozen House members have endorsed it. Sen. Jim DeMint praised it in his book "Saving Freedom." Jeb Bush likes it. On CNN last week, economic historian Niall Ferguson called Ryan "a serious thinker on the Republican right who's prepared to grapple with these issues of fiscal sustainability and come up with a plan."
The plan would give everyone a refundable tax credit to buy health insurance, allow individual investment accounts to be carved out of Social Security, reduce the six income tax rates to two (10 and 25 percent), and replace the corporate tax (35 percent) with a business consumption tax (8.5 percent). And that's not the half of it.
As ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, Ryan was able to get the Congressional Budget Office to run the numbers in his plan. CBO concluded the plan would "make the Social Security and Medicare programs permanently solvent [and] lift the growing debt burden on future generations, and hold federal taxes to no higher than 19 percent of GDP." Pretty impressive results, I'd say.
The road map does one more thing. It would give Republicans an agenda if they gain control of the House or Senate in the midterm election -- or a mandate if they win both. "What's the point of winning an election if you don't have a mandate?" Ryan asks.
He doesn't expect a mandate in 2010. "I need to make sure these ideas survive this election," he says, and set the stage for "the most ideological, sea-changing election in our lifetime" in 2012. Merely survive in 2010? The road map can do better than that. How about thrive?
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Rising star Paul Ryan states the case
Americans are preparing to fight another American Revolution, this time, a peaceful one with election ballots...but the "causes" of both are the same:
Should unchecked centralized government be allowed to grow and grow in power ... or should its powers be limited and returned to the people?
Should irresponsible leaders in a distant capital be encouraged to run up scandalous debts without limit that crush jobs and stall prosperity ... or should the reckless be turned out of office and a new government elected to live within its means?
Should America bid farewell to exceptional freedom and follow the retreat to European social welfare paternalism ... or should we make a new start, in the faith that boundless opportunities belong to the workers, the builders, the industrious, and the free?
We are at the beginning of an election campaign like you've never seen before!
Should unchecked centralized government be allowed to grow and grow in power ... or should its powers be limited and returned to the people?
Should irresponsible leaders in a distant capital be encouraged to run up scandalous debts without limit that crush jobs and stall prosperity ... or should the reckless be turned out of office and a new government elected to live within its means?
Should America bid farewell to exceptional freedom and follow the retreat to European social welfare paternalism ... or should we make a new start, in the faith that boundless opportunities belong to the workers, the builders, the industrious, and the free?
We are at the beginning of an election campaign like you've never seen before!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Paul Ryan explains how system is being gamed
One of the most credible people to emerge in this whole debate is Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), top Republican on the House Budget Committee. Ryan told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren last night, Democrats are still about 10 votes short.
“We still think they’re 10 down,” Ryan said. “There’s a common strategy being employed especially these days called the inevitability strategy. Make your team think you’re winning and if you’re going to vote against the team then it’s your fault for bringing the team down. Get the opposition on defense. Get the American people who are upset about this demoralized so that they don’t pick up the phone and call their Congressman. … The inevitability strategy is to try to win through bluffing. They are bluffing. They don’t have the votes. And they’ve got [until Sunday] to muscle this thing through until the President gets on a plane to Indonesia.”
“We still think they’re 10 down,” Ryan said. “There’s a common strategy being employed especially these days called the inevitability strategy. Make your team think you’re winning and if you’re going to vote against the team then it’s your fault for bringing the team down. Get the opposition on defense. Get the American people who are upset about this demoralized so that they don’t pick up the phone and call their Congressman. … The inevitability strategy is to try to win through bluffing. They are bluffing. They don’t have the votes. And they’ve got [until Sunday] to muscle this thing through until the President gets on a plane to Indonesia.”
Sunday, February 14, 2010
We're hurtling down the road to serfdom
According to the Tax Foundation, 60 percent of the population now gets more in government benefits than it pays in taxes. What does it say about a society in which more than half the people live at the expense of the rest? Worse, the dependent class is growing. The 60 percent will soon be 70 percent.
Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin seems to understand the threat: He's worried that "more people have a stake in the welfare state than in free enterprise. This is a road that Hayek perfectly described as 'the road to serfdom.'" (Tomorrow I will ask Ryan why, if he understands this, he voted for TARP and the auto bailouts.)
Kurt Vonnegut understood the threat of government-imposed equality. His short story Harrison Bergeron portrays a future in which no one is permitted to have any physical or intellectual advantage over anyone else. A government Handicapper General weighs down the strong and agile, masks the faces of the beautiful and distracts the smart.
So far, the Handicapper General is just fantasy. But Vice President Joe Biden did shout at the Democratic National Convention: "Everyone is your equal, and everyone is equal to you." If he meant that we're all equal in rights and before the law, fine. If he meant government shouldn't put barriers in the way of opportunity, great. But statists like Biden usually have more in mind: They want government to make results more equal.
Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin seems to understand the threat: He's worried that "more people have a stake in the welfare state than in free enterprise. This is a road that Hayek perfectly described as 'the road to serfdom.'" (Tomorrow I will ask Ryan why, if he understands this, he voted for TARP and the auto bailouts.)
Kurt Vonnegut understood the threat of government-imposed equality. His short story Harrison Bergeron portrays a future in which no one is permitted to have any physical or intellectual advantage over anyone else. A government Handicapper General weighs down the strong and agile, masks the faces of the beautiful and distracts the smart.
So far, the Handicapper General is just fantasy. But Vice President Joe Biden did shout at the Democratic National Convention: "Everyone is your equal, and everyone is equal to you." If he meant that we're all equal in rights and before the law, fine. If he meant government shouldn't put barriers in the way of opportunity, great. But statists like Biden usually have more in mind: They want government to make results more equal.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
