GOP Roadmap for America’s Future has YOUR Security in its Sights

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The Ryan Budget’s Radical Priorities

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

By Paul N. Van de Water — July 7, 2010

I. Summary

The Roadmap for America’s Future, which Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) – the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee – released in late January, calls for radical policy changes that would result in a massive transfer of resources from the broad majority of Americans to the nation’s wealthiest individuals.[1]

The Roadmap would give the most affluent households a new round of very large, costly tax cuts by reducing income tax rates on high-income households;

eliminating income taxes on capital gains, dividends, and interest;

and abolishing the corporate income tax, the estate tax, and the alternative minimum tax.

At the same time, the Ryan plan would raise taxes for most middle-income families,

privatize a substantial portion of Social Security,

eliminate the tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance,

end traditional Medicare and most of Medicaid,

and terminate the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

… as if those changes weren’t enough to roll us back to the Reaganomics ‘dark ages’  — Paul Ryan, who is the rising star in GOP Conservative ranks, would make sure that the Richest 1% — get EVEN MORE … Rich …

(… continuing with the “GOP Budget Roadmap Plan” …)

The tax cuts for those at the very top would be of historic proportions. A new analysis by the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center (TPC) finds:

 — The Ryan plan would cut in half the taxes of the richest 1 percent of Americans – those with incomes exceeding $633,000 (in 2009 dollars) in 2014.

 — The higher one goes up the income scale, the more massive the tax cuts would be. Households with incomes of more than $1 million would receive an average annual tax cut of $502,000.

 — The richest one-tenth of 1 percent of Americans – those whose incomes exceed $2.9 million a year – would receive an average tax cut of $1.7 million a year.

These tax cuts would be on top of those that high-income households would get from making the Bush tax cuts, which are due to expire at the end of 2010, permanent.

Bush Tax Cuts — Round Two!

It’s so hard to make it on 2.9 million, these days … those ‘movers and shakers’, need all the help they can get, apparently, according the GOP’s New Budget Roadmap.

So how do they plan to pay for this Reverse Robin Hood plan?

Remember John Boehner’s Social Security trial balloon … about the desperate need to Raise the Social Security Retirement Age, to 70?

They see ALL the Money we’ve dutifully saved away, and they want a slice of it!

Luckily for Democrats, most Americans don’t see it the same way as the GOP does, according to this brand new poll:

Deficits And Economic Recovery

A Research Study On Investment and Deficit Reduction

By Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, Democracy Corps, Campaign for Amerca’s Future

August 12th, 2010

Key findings of the [Greenberg Quinlan] Poll:

 — 68% said they would oppose making major spending cuts in Social Security and Medicare to reduce the deficit, while 28% said they would favor cutting those programs. That included 61% of Republicans and 56% of independents.

 — Strong majorities support progressive solutions for addressing the federal deficit:

63% back lifting the Social Security cap on incomes higher than $107,000 a year;

64% would favor eliminating tax breaks for corporations that outsource jobs;

62% would support a tax on excessive Wall Street bank profits.

 — Strong majorities also oppose common conservative proposals for addressing the budget deficit:

65% oppose raising the Social Security retirement age to 70;

65% oppose replacing Medicare with a private sector voucher;

62% oppose a 3 percent federal sales tax;

60% oppose raising the Medicare age from 65 to 67.

It seems pretty clear — that the vast majority of the American People — including Republicans and Independents are saying one thing:

Get your Mitts Off of MY Retirement Security!

Hint:  this is a Winning Election issue — Dems, just protect what’s ours!

We don’t need No Millionaire Bailout!

Republicans and the “Left” Agree: Defending Social Security is a Political Winner

By Richard (RJ) Eskow — August 12, 2010

68% of likely voters polled believe that we should not cut Social Security and Medicare to reduce the deficit.

60% of Republicans agree.

These figures are from a new poll conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner on behalf of the Campaign for America’s Future and DemocracyCorps, with support from MoveOn.org. They tell us that the Democrats have a winning issue for November’s elections. All they have to do is strongly reaffirm the President’s campaign pledges for Social Security.

But isn’t Social Security about to Go Broke?  

I keep hearing about these “veiled fears” about the long-term viability of the U.S. Trust Fund for delivering on Social Security checks.   … What’s about that S.S. ‘Balloon Payment’, floating out there like the Hindenburg, staged to “Destroy our Economy” in one swift Crash and Burn operation ?

Aren’t we playing with Fire, to expect Social Security to be there, someday when we need it?

Top 5 Social Security Myths

MoveOn.org

Rumors of Social Security’s demise are greatly exaggerated. […]

Myth: Social Security is going broke.

Reality: There is no Social Security crisis. By 2023, Social Security will have a $4.3 trillion surplus (yes, trillion with a ‘T’). It can pay out all scheduled benefits for the next quarter-century with no changes whatsoever.[1]

After 2037, it’ll still be able to pay out 75% of scheduled benefits — and again, that’s without any changes. The program started preparing for the Baby Boomers retirement decades ago.[2]

Anyone who insists Social Security is broke probably wants to break it themselves.

Myth: We have to raise the retirement age because people are living longer.

Reality: This is a red-herring to trick you into agreeing to benefit cuts. Retirees are living about the same amount of time as they were in the 1930s.

The reason average life expectancy is higher is mostly because many fewer people die as children than did 70 years ago.[3]

What’s more, what gains there have been are distributed very unevenly — since 1972, life expectancy increased by 6.5 years for workers in the top half of the income brackets, but by less than 2 years for those in the bottom half.[4]

But those intent on cutting Social Security love this argument because raising the retirement age is the same as an across-the-board benefit cut.

(… more Social Security Myths vs Realities.)

So there you go — Social Security is solvent for at least the next 25 years!

(don’t do anything rash.)

No urgent Emergency here — except for that of the GOP trying desperately to get their Mitts back on the reigns of power.

Would you let these Professional Crash-n-Burn artists, back behind the Wheel again, given their well-established track record of wrecking a good thing?

No Way!

Hopefully this diary, gives you more than a few reasons, to keep the GOP from EVER getting close to your future Retirement Funds — again, any time soon.

Afterall we’ve EARNED OUR Golden Years — they haven’t !

Neither have their special interest corporate sponsors — No Matter how much they would love to Leverage OUR Future Benefits, into their immediate Financial Gains, now.

NO Reverse Robin Hood Plans required — thank you very much, GOP!

No More Bailouts — for Millionaires — either!

We need help on Main Street, instead.

[Note: all emphasis, expressed above are strictly those of the writer, and not the sources cited.]