{"id":336268,"date":"2010-02-18T15:56:04","date_gmt":"2010-02-18T20:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.szone.us\/f95\/new-party-no-39636\/"},"modified":"2010-02-18T15:56:04","modified_gmt":"2010-02-18T20:56:04","slug":"the-new-party-of-%c2%93no%c2%94","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/336268","title":{"rendered":"The New Party of \u0093No\u0094"},"content":{"rendered":"
On 02.18.10 07:30 AM posted by Kathryn Nix<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) recently introduced the \u0093Roadmap for America\u0092s Future\u0094<\/a>, a plan to reduce federal spending, pay off the national debt, and ensure future American prosperity.* The Roadmap would create long-term fiscal solvency in the three federal entitlement programs\u0097Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security\u0097which otherwise promise to drive the nation into bankruptcy.* Rep. Ryan\u0092s legislation is currently the only comprehensive proposal to reverse the federal government\u0092s budgetary woes.<\/p>\n

The only acknowledgment Democrats have offered of Rep. Ryan\u0092s proposal has been largely criticism<\/a>.* Alternative solutions heard from the left amount to little more than a weak executive-appointed committee to explore<\/i> budget reform<\/a>.* This implies a preference to maintain the status quo rather than truly address America\u0092s fiscal future, and will result in nothing short of prolonged change and protection of unsustainable federal spending.<\/p>\n

And what exactly is the status quo?* According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), without Rep. Ryan\u0092s proposal, entitlement spending will more than double by 2050, reaching 18.1% of Gross Domestic Product<\/a>.* If current tax rates are held constant, spending on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will consume all federal revenue<\/a> by 2052, so that all other government programs and defense spending would be paid for by staggering deficit spending.* Social Security will experience red ink this year<\/a> and will run permanent deficits beginning in 2016.* Under the current trajectory, total government spending will reach 67 percent of GDP by 2082<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Attacks have mainly focused on Rep. Ryan\u0092s changes to Medicare, claiming they reduce benefits for seniors.* This argument dismisses the fact that, as the population ages, unfunded Medicare obligations threaten to drive the program into the ground.* This would clearly be detrimental to those who expect to receive benefits in old age, but would also cripple generations to come with insurmountable new debt.* Refusing to act is thus morally bankrupt on two levels: first, it promises aging Americans benefits which may not exist; second, it does so by piling debt onto future generations.<\/p>\n

The Roadmap directs entitlements towards long-term solvency to ensure their existence for decades to come, recognizing that runaway spending cannot be reversed by tax hikes alone.* If entitlements are left untouched, CBO predicts tax rates would double<\/a> to cover the cost.* By 2080, some Americans would pay up to 88 percent of their income in taxes, and even the lowest tax bracket would pay 25 percent.* William Gale of the Brookings Institute<\/a> estimates new revenue sources, such as a value-added tax of 15 to 20 percent, would be necessary to close the budgetary gap. The economic ramifications of this level of taxation would be tremendous.<\/p>\n

If President Obama\u0092s 2011 budget is any indicator, Democrats will not get serious about spending any time soon.* The proposed budget will put the country $2.5 trillion further into debt by 2020 than would current law, leaving annual deficits above $1 trillion.<\/a> This alone is irresponsible, but criticizing a solid proposal while offering no solutions of their own marks Roadmap opponents as the foe of a sustainable and economically viable future for America.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/blog.heritage.org\/2010\/02\/18\/…9cno%e2%80%9d\/<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 02.18.10 07:30 AM posted by Kathryn Nix Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) recently introduced the \u0093Roadmap for America\u0092s Future\u0094, a plan to reduce federal spending, pay off the national debt, and ensure future American prosperity.* The Roadmap would create long-term fiscal solvency in the three federal entitlement programs\u0097Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security\u0097which otherwise promise to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-336268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}