Rep. Paul Ryan Offers An Alternative To Obamacare
Today, the House Budget Committee is to mark up a "reconciliation" vehicle, initiating the greatest expansion in government and entitlement spending in a generation through a partisan process to push "health-care reform" across the finish line.
Despite claims of transparency and calls for a "simple up-or-down vote," there is nothing simple about this process. This convoluted legislative charade demonstrates how far the Democratic majority has wandered from real health-care reform and cost control, employing any means to achieve political victory.
Through any analytical lens, the legislation will not address the central problem of skyrocketing health-care costs. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that families' premiums could rise 10 to 13 percent; private-sector actuarial estimates top these already high numbers. The higher costs are driven by federalizing the regulation of insurance, narrowing consumers' options and reducing competition among providers. The health-care market would be dominated by government programs and the largest insurance companies, operating as de facto government utilities.
Rather than tackle the drivers of health inflation, the legislation chases the ever-increasing premiums with huge new subsidies. Already, Washington has no idea how to pay for the unfunded promises in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security -- and creating this new entitlement would accelerate our path to fiscal ruin. When you strip away the double-counting, expose the hidden costs that must be funded and look at the price tag when the legislation is fully implemented, the claims of deficit reduction are as hollow as claims of cost containment.
This legislation includes a range of job-killing tax hikes and controls on all Americans -- to fund this new entitlement and to penalize employers and individuals who don't play by Washington's new rules. The CBO said last July that "requiring employers to offer health insurance, or pay a fee if they do not, is likely to reduce employment." The mix of mandates and higher costs will drive Americans into government exchanges, with an ever-enlarging number reliant upon taxpayer subsidies for their care. The architecture is designed to give the government greater control over what kind of insurance is available, how much health care is enough and which treatments are worth paying for.
Video: Paul Ryan Vs. the President
The debacle of the past year's "debate" has been a missed opportunity for real reform. Democrats and Republicans alike have put forward proposals that address the drivers of health-care costs, yet they have been ignored in this sharply partisan crusade. House Republicans continue to offer common-sense solutions, with specific legislation. Last May, Sens. Tom Coburn and Richard Burr and Rep. Devin Nunes and I collaborated to address rising costs while securing access to quality, affordable health coverage for all Americans. The Patients' Choice Act takes on the discriminatory and inflationary tax exclusion, delinking the tax benefit from employers and attaching it to individuals through universal tax credits. The tax exclusion for employer-provided health coverage subsidizes insurance instead of health care, hides the true cost of coverage and disproportionately favors the wealthy at the expense of the self-employed, the unemployed and small businesses. Health-care economists across the political spectrum and reform-minded Democrats such as Sen. Ron Wyden identify the backward tax treatment of health care as a problem that must be addressed.
The Patients' Choice Act includes additional reforms -- such as an emphasis on preventive care, medical malpractice reform and interstate shopping -- that could be advanced one at a time in a bipartisan fashion to fix what's broken in health care without breaking what is working.
This year I re-introduced my own proposals to tackle our entitlement crisis head-on. My plan, "A Roadmap for America's Future," fulfills the mission of health and retirement security, lifts our crushing burden of debt, and spurs economic growth and job creation. In stark contrast to the vision being pushed by the majority in Congress, my plan unapologetically seeks to apply our nation's timeless principles -- our Founders' commitment to individual liberty, limited government and free enterprise -- to today's challenges. It does so in a way that honors our historic commitment to strengthening the social safety net for those who need it most.
If this debate had actually been about health care, we could have worked together to get a grip on costs, make quality care more accessible, address exclusions for preexisting conditions and realign the incentives of insurance companies with those of patients and doctors. Yet this process -- including its embarrassing conclusion -- demonstrates that the debate has never been about health-care policy but, instead, paternalistic ideology.
Should the Democrats' health-care train wreck make it to the president's desk, it will be a pyrrhic victory, and its devastating consequences will take their toll on our health-care system, our budget and our economy.
Paul Ryan (Wis.) is the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee.
Mar 15, 2010 at 12:50 PM
Reader Comments (10)
http://dailybail.com/home/us-headed-toward-bankruptcy-says-top-budget-committee-member.html
In a PRIVATE detention center run as a completely for-profit corporation, of course.
If it passes he will nonstop have to deal with the mayority of people who don't want it. And the legal questions about the procedure.
If it doesn't pass it makes him even more look like a loser, he had spent a year promoting it.
Either way.
—
"I gave up trying to understand people long ago. Now I just let them try to understand me!"
Declaration of Nullification
http://www.rjharris2010.com/
"Restoring the Constitution, the Republic, and Oklahoma Sovereignty"
"As a soldier, I pledged my life to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. That very oath, as a young Sergeant in the Army, is what prompted me to read the Constitution for the first time. Since then I have learned that our government is up to a great many things that it should not be and as your Congressman, I pledge my life, liberty, and sacred honor to do all that I can to restore the rule of law, the liberty of all, and the Sovereignty of Oklahoma."
- RJ Harris
http://www.opensecrets.org/PRES08/moneyweb.php?cycle=2008
Dylan Ratigan: Who Is Trying To Kill Ron's "Audit The Fed" Bill? Maplight.org
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/35937156#35937156
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3LdMAqUMnM&feature=player_embedded#
40 years later, and not much has changed. The kids are still getting a raw deal, led off to slaughter by the Masters of War (another song that had a profound impact on me around the same time).
How can we break this cycle? How can we end the wars?
Bob Dylan - Masters Of War
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muQRIUVd6Aw
BOB DYLAN all along the watchtower
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_ncQgjIlFM&feature=related
Barak Obama Introduces Bob Dylan LIVE at the White House The Times They Are A Changing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFVhUSyMvHw
Bob Dylan, Clint Eastwood Skip Obama Award Ceremony
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YSlKNcoKGM
Yes We Can - Barack Obama Music Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35tI-8TaKmU
Monster Mash Bash - Haunting Politicians
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqC-ClR9YPc
((((Angry American Says : "Obama take your politics and shove it. "))))
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk2dkZBXJ80
Unfortunately AMericans will take forever to FINALLY realize that the dems and the repubs are the same thing. Politics has become something of a business in this country. Once we all get on board and UNITE, we will win the fight against slavery and fascism.
Don't listen to media, stop relying on voting.
Take your power back america and stop feeding into this system, this machine!
Taxes, military industrial complex, voting system, media are all an erosion of our freedoms.
They Die In Vain
These young people think they're dying for America. These wars are not in the interest of the vast majority of Americans.
To die for a lie is to die in vain. Sometimes I want to grab them, shake them, and tell them not to die for the elites who have nothing but contempt for them.
19 for LIBERTY, Not Security - RON PAUL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a822mPM0msg
Our Liberty--Pretty simple huh--Its all about Liberty..If you ignore all the politcal drama and propaganda media--It all comes down to personal rights..We want to keep them--they want to take them--so whats nexts..
The owners of more than six million cars already on the road also face road tax rises more than double the rate of inflation.
Under a new Government “green tax” regime, Vehicle Excise Duty rates have been changed to reflect the emissions from car engines.
Ratagain (and again and again), Stuwpert, Coldbeer, Huffungtwaddle, Stepalloverus, SNL, etc....Serve us up some of that ummm ummm good liberal soup.