The Ryan Plan
As I have pointed out before, a bipartisan group of ten former CEA chairs (including your humble blog host) has endorsed the Bowles-Simpson commission report as a starting point for dealing with the long-run fiscal imbalance. So readers might like to know that Bowles and Simpson themselves have called the Ryan plan a positive step.
If you want to learn more about the Ryan plan, you can look at this side-by-side comparison of two plans or read this CBO report.
CBO makes clear that it believes there are substantial budgetary savings in the Ryan plan, but to a large extent these are because "the government’s contribution [to Medicare] would grow more slowly than health care costs, leaving more for beneficiaries to pay." Many on the left view such a change in entitlements as too draconian, but they have not offered a real alternative. If they did, it would have to include substantial, broad-based tax increases, which those on the right would view as draconian.
That is, the choice we face is between historically high taxes (the left's unspoken preference) and a fundamental rethinking of the social safety net (such as the plan proposed by Congressman Ryan).
If you want to learn more about the Ryan plan, you can look at this side-by-side comparison of two plans or read this CBO report.
CBO makes clear that it believes there are substantial budgetary savings in the Ryan plan, but to a large extent these are because "the government’s contribution [to Medicare] would grow more slowly than health care costs, leaving more for beneficiaries to pay." Many on the left view such a change in entitlements as too draconian, but they have not offered a real alternative. If they did, it would have to include substantial, broad-based tax increases, which those on the right would view as draconian.
That is, the choice we face is between historically high taxes (the left's unspoken preference) and a fundamental rethinking of the social safety net (such as the plan proposed by Congressman Ryan).
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