One Look at the Ryan Budget Plan

With Romney announcing his pick of Rep Paul Ryan to be his VP choice, previous Obama, Biden, Pelosi, and bucked tooth Wasserman-Schultz attacks on Ryan's budget plan are re-surfacing. Seems kind of hypocritical that the Democrats, who have no plan of their own besides borrowing more money and instituting higher taxation, are banging on Ryan's plan.

And make no doubt about it, the Democrats will make Ryan's plan and therefore Romney's fiscal platform out to be a death sentance on the elderly. Obama has no choice to demonize Romney and Ryan, since he has no plan of his own and is running scared,....Obama cannot run on his own record which history will show as the worst administration in history.

The below is Yahoo!'s lay out of the five key points from Ryan's "Pathway to Prosperity" budget.

1. Ryan's budget plan cuts $5.8 trillion over 10 years from projected federal spending and reduces the deficit by $4.4 trillion over the same period. Discretionary spending, which includes programs like food stamps, would see more than $900 trillion in reductions. The budget also calls for the repeal of President Obama's health care reform law, which supporters say would save billions in federal subsidies that will be given to lower-income people to buy insurance.

2. The most contentious part of Ryan's proposed budget are the changes to Medicare, the nation's insurance plan for retirees and a political third rail. Ryan's plan would eventually transform Medicare into defined payments that seniors can use to buy private insurance or a government plan on an insurance exchange.

There would be no limits to the out-of-pocket costs seniors could pay in this program, but Ryan assumes that the increased competition between Medicare and private plans would bring down overall costs. The amount of money seniors get to buy insurance would grow at a slightly higher rate than GDP each year. (The Congressional Budget Office says this would save the government money, but also significantly increase the amount seniors will eventually have to pay for their own insurance.)

The eligibility age would gradually rise to 67, from 65. Democrats say this transforms Medicare into a "voucher program" that may leave seniors with big prescription bills and other medical costs, and the Obama campaign is already using this against Romney and Ryan. If Obama can convince seniors--a powerful voting bloc that turns out at the polls--that Ryan would worsen or weaken Medicare, it could mean bad news for their campaign.

Cowboy's comment: Don't forget about Obama taking $500 billion from Medicare to pay for Obamacare, even though he granted waivers to all his Union friends."

3. Ryan would cut the top federal income tax rate for individuals and corporations to 25 percent from 35 percent. The budget says some tax breaks and loopholes would be eliminated to help offset the revenue loss.

Cowboy's comment: This puts more money back into the pockets of those who earned it, and less for those who would steal it - read the Federal Government. This additional money provides working capital so businesses can expand, creating more jobs and therefore more people wth health care insurance and more revenue for the Federal government.

4. Ryan would slash Medicaid, the insurance program for some low-income people, by $735 billion over ten years, and hand the program back to the states to administer with more freedom. The CBO writes that states would most likely have to "reduce payments to providers, curtail eligibility for Medicaid, provide less extensive coverage to beneficiaries, or pay more themselves than would be the case under current law." 5. The budget spares Social Security and defense spending, which are left at current levels.

Ryan's decision to back off Social Security is interesting, since he put forward proposals to privatize the program around the same time that President George W. Bush tried to sell the nation on a similar proposal. (Social Security does not face the same solvency challenges as Medicare and Medicaid, and is not projected to grow much as a percentage of GDP over the next 20 years.)

Cowboy's comment: What is missing from Yahoo!'s commentary on the Ryan budget plan is the consequences from failure to act. Obama has driven this country to unprecedented amounts of Federal debt and annual deficit. We are approaching $1 trillion in deficit spending this year and have over $16 Trillion in debt,.....over $5 trillion from Obama's administration alone! There is no mistake about it,....failure to act,... and act boldy will collapse this country.